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irSMAS 



ON THE 

floral aniJ Kdigiouss ^ftavactcv 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

SUPPORTED BY 

NUMEROUS EXTRACTS FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. 

&c. &c. &c. 



PRICE TWO SHILLINGS. 



/ 



REMARKS 



ON THE 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 



OF THE 



UMITEI> STATES 



OF 



AMEMICA, 



SUPPORTED BY NUMEROUS EXTRACTS FROM THE 
BEST AUTHORITIES: ' 



ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR OF 



" A REPLY " TO THE CHARGE 



LATELY 



Dz:3:.zv£B.z:3> by the AZtcHosAcoiar or coiiCHSSTSixt,. 



BY OBSERVER. 



"BY THEIR FnUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEJl. 



COLCHESTER: 

PHINTED AND SOLD BY SWINUOKNE, WALTEH, AND TAYLOH. 

SOLD ALSO BY 

C. J. G. AND F, RIVINGTON ; UATCHAHD AND SON; AND SIMIMUN 
AND MARSUALL, LONDON. 

183 L 



/ 

/ 



^3-e 



?/ 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



A Tract, professing to represent the opinions of the Dis- 
senters, has lately been distributed at the cottages of the Poor 
in this neighbourhood, the direct tendency of which is to 
hold forth the clergy of the Establishment as unworthy of 
their situation, and the revenues of the Church as a fit object 
of robbery. The principal argument made use of is, that, as 
there was no Church Establishment when Christianity was 
so far from being the established religion of any nation on 
earth, that it was only professed by a few humble individuals, 
scorned and persecuted by the rest of mankind, that therefore 
there ought to be no such Establishment now. There was a 
time when the inhabitants of this country used to go naked, 
and paint their bodies in such fantastic forms as savage 
caprice might suggest: why not follow their example, and 
return to this primitive state of things? There would be as 
much sense in the one as in the other, and a great deal more 
honesty in the latter. 

In order to justify in some degree the destruction of the 
Establishment, we are reminded of the United States of 
America, where religion is left to shift for herself, and, of 
course, is supposed to be thriving remarkably well. The 
pamphlet, by a part of which the following Remarks have 
been called forth, originated in the same quarter as the tract, 
and is dictated by a similar feeling. Here again the United 
States are held up as an object worthy of imitation. When 
the reader has perused the varied and indisputable author!- 



VI ADVERTISEMENT. 

ties which I have laid before him, he will be enabled to judge 
for himself. One conckision I think he must arrive at, 
namely, that the men, who could hold up such a country 
for our imitation in its moral or religious character, must 
either be pitiably ignorant, or detestably knavish. Some of 
the Extracts which have been introduced, do not, perhaps, 
bear immediately either on the moral or religious character 
of the States. They are, however, highly illustrative of 
national character; and as such, are not without interest. 
On the subject of religion in the United States, I believe that 
the dissenters generally are miserably deceived. 

There is a remarkable coincidence between the present 
and former times not yet forgotten, in the hostility which is 
professed against bells, and, indeed, against any thing which 
happens to combine ornament with utility. "As to their 
being deprived of the sound of the sabbath bells" (saith this 
modern Prynne), " they begin also to think, that as much true 
religion lies in that sound, as in the surplice, painted windows, 
showy altar, and many other things which originated in the 
gloom of popery, or issued from the fountains of superstition." 

The Author of " a Reply " ought to know, that such things 
are not considered as the essentials of religion, but only 
as accessory and convenient. He is quite mistaken, if he 
supposes that Churchmen think, that true religion is to be 
found in the sound of a bell, or in a surplice, or in painted 
windows, any more than in a whine through the nose, or in a 
face drawn out to the length of a cubit, or in a broad-brimmed 
hat, or in a wilful perversion of the recognized forms of 
speech. These noses, and faces, and hats, and perversions of 
speech, have the most perfect toleration ; and why not let 
the toleration be mutual ? 

The " gloom of popery," too ! We owe some of the no- 
blest productions of art to the circumstance of their being 
enlisted in the cause of religion. The Catholic thought no 
offering to his God too costly or too magnificent; — the Pu- 



ADVERTISEMENT. VU 

ritan thinks that he cannot be too mean and niggardly. 
However we may differ from our Catholic forefathers in 
opinion, we cannot but admire those stupendous monuments, 
which the spirit of piety reared, in various parts of the land, 
to the service of religion and learning. The Puritans, when 
they had the power, are remembered for nothing, but their 
selfishness, tyranny, ignorance, and warfare against every thing 
in the shape of ornament, when connected with religion. 
Many of the churches in this immediate neighbourhood, to 
this day bear testimony to the savage spirit of destruction 
and robbery which characterized the fanatic Hun, who was 
commissioned to overthrow " showy altai's," demolish " paint- 
ed windows," deface angelic forms, erase monumental inscrip- 
tions, and, in short, to obHterate any thing, that happened not 
to be quite consistent with his own barbarous and intolerant 
notions. 

Should any one be particularly desirous of dissipating the 
" gloom of Popery," I would recommend to him the following 
genuine puritanical works : — *' A Hole pricked in the Pope's 
Coat ;" " The Pricking Provender of Prelacy;" " The Buckle 
of the Canonical Girdle turned ;" "A Shot aimed at the De- 
vil's Head Quarters, through the tube of a Cannon of the Co- 
venant." After having demolished Popery and Prelacy, he 
may proceed with " High-heeled shoes for Dwarfs in Holi- 
ness;" "A Heel-piece to a Limping Sinner;" "Hooks and 
Eyes for Believers' Breeches;" and "Baxter's Shove to a 
Heavy-Breeched Christain." He may then conclude with 
" Sweet Sips of Soul Savingness." If" the gloom of Popery" 
should not be dissipated by the perusal of these, he may be 
deemed beyond the reach of human assistance. 



REMARKS, &c. 



Sir, 

In the following pages it is not my 
intention to enter upon the various subjects of your 
pamphlet, published in reply to the Charge, lately 
delivered to the Clergy at Colchester, by Archdeacon 
Lyall ; I shall confine myself to that part of it, which 
relates to the state of religion, as it presents itself in 
the American Union. In doing this, I have no wish 
to " hazard statements to serve a particular purpose, 
without being founded on sufficient information," 
nor shall I " advance general assertions, and, for con- 
firmation, cite authors, either of remote date, as com- 
pared with recent, or those, who, upon the particular 
account for which they are brought forward, cannot 
be considered as the most impartial, or competent.'^ 
To do this, however, would be much better, than to 
give statements resting on no expressed authority at 
all ; and that too, in cases, where it would be difficult 
to allow you to be either an " impartial, or competent" 
judge. It is particularly amusing, to see a man bring- 
ing against others the charges, I have already quoted, 
and then gravely proceeding, page after page, with 
statements apparently dependent upon nothing, but 
his own arbitrary will and pleasure ; seemingly quite 
unconscious, that he is kicking down his own prin- 
ciples at every step. When we write to the bad 

B 



feelings, the prejudice, or the rapacity of our readers, 
it is much better indeed to dispense with facts, and 
authorities ; as they would often stand in the way of 
some plausible, but hollow theory. I quite agree 
with you, that " nothing is more convenient than to 
advance general assertions ;" but it is rather odd, that 
whilst you are making this cap for others, you should 
not perceive, that it is as well adapted to your own 
head, as the very scalp that covers it. 

You estimate the population of the United States, 
without however giving any authority, at 12,500,000 ; 
the number of churches, of all sects, 11,164 ; and the 
average attendance at 600 souls, — " giving a total of 
«5, 582,000 usually attendant on the Christian ministry, 
exclusive of Roman-Catholics, who are very numerous 
in some parts of the republic." 

The census of 1820 gives the following amount of 
population : — 

Whites 7,861,935 

Slaves 1,538,118 

Free Blacks 233,557 

All other persons, except? Afiifi 

Indians not naturalized 5 ' 

Total 9,638,226 

The slaves, and the black population generally, by 
this time, in all probability, amount to not less than 
two millions. In what state they are, we shall have 
occasion to see hereafter ; but, adopting your own 
statement of population, if we include the Roman- 
Catholic attendants (and why a class of Christians, in 
Baltimore for instance more numerous than any other, 



should be excluded at all, it would be difficult to say), 
the usual attendants on Christian worship, will, in 
gross numbers, amount to one half of the population. 
The circumstances of a case. Sir, sometimes afford 
stronger evidence, even than the oath of any man 
whatever; and we know, that in no Christian country 
in Europe, nor perhaps in any district of an}^ such 
country does the number of attendants on public 
worship form any thing like an approximation to this 
ratio, even where the population is densely concen- 
trated. The old, the infirm, the sick, the infant, the 
busy, the unwilling, the idle, the infidel, in all 
countries, form together a large majority of absentees. 
But the population of the United States is spread 
over an almost infinity of territory. From the north- 
ern point of New England to the northern point of 
the Floridas, is about 17 oO miles. From New York 
to the western boundaries, is about 1400 miles; in 
length IZoO, in breadth 1400 miles, in square miles 
2,450,000. Including the islands situated on the 
coast, we may say, with certainty, 2,500,000 ; which 
gives for every square mile 5 souls. The western 
country alone is said by geographers to contain 
1,500,000 square miles. To furnish an average con- 
gregation of 500 persons, supposing that one half attend 
public worship, whether performed in log-house, shanty, 
or any other place, in winter, summer, or any other 
season, we must sweep over a space of 200 square 
miles ; at the same time, that we should find some 
difficulty perhaps in meeting with three families in suc- 
cession, professing the same religious opinions, in this 



" land of a hundred sects." Surely, Sir, amongst your 
admirers, you must calculate upon a prejudice, which 
entirely dispenses with examination and thought ; or, 
upon a credulity, absolutely idiotic. 

Jonathan is proverbial for throwing the hatchet, 
better than any man living. " There are," says Mr. 
Fearon, "no people, not even excepting the French, 
so vain, as the Americans. Their self-estimation, and 
cold-headed bombast, when speaking of themselves, 
or their country, are quite ludicrous. I might fill 
many pages, were I to follow in detail the deceptions 
example of some recent writers, whose views may perhaps 
he easilij appreciated. Every American, if he be a 
man of sense, would wish to see the real character 
and condition of his country ; in order that he might, 
not only perceive what is excellent, but also be able 
to discover what there was to amend and improve ; 
while to the respectable emigrant, and his family, the 
consequences must be lamentable, when he finds, that 
he has been excited to a change of country, by the 
exaggerated and base misrepresentations of romantic 
or interested individuals.'' Moore, the poet, has hap- 
pily, satirized this national vanity, in his epistle dated 
from Washington. 

" In fancy now, beneath the twihght gloom, 
Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome, 
Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow, 
And what was Goose-creek once, is Tiber now. 
This famed metropolis, where fancy sees 
Squares in morasses — obelisks in trees; 
"Which travelling fools, and gazetteers, adorn 
With shrines unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn." 



Americans, who have even seen London, will 
gravely tell their gaping countrymen, that it is not to 
be compared to New York. In any thing in which 
country is concerned too much caution cannot be 
exercised, in giving credence to American gasconade. 

Whether your statement, that nearly one half of the 
whole population of the United States (for your state- 
ment amounts to this) in their present state of disper- 
sion, and of course in spite of all obstacles, bodily and 
local, are usually attendant upon the Christian minis- 
try, giving an average attendance of five hundred souls, 
in each congregation, exclusive of Catholics, — whether 
this statement depends upon American, or upon any 
other authority whatever, I have no hesitation in 
saying, that it bears upon its front the impress of 
falsehood, and physical impossibility. 

The population of New York, when Mr. Fearon 
visited it, was 120,000; the places of Christian wor- 
ship 44. If about one half of this population fit- 
tended, it would require an average of from 13 to 14 
hundred persons in each place of worship. Do you 
mean to affirm, that this was the case, even in the 
concentrated population of New York ? Mr. Fearon 
allows, that, "all the churches," meaning places of 
worship, " are well filled," at New York ; but when 
we consider, that some of these churches, instead of 
1360 attendants, had not perhaps one quarter of that 
number, the rest of the assemblages must have been 
tremendous indeed. If your calculation is ridiculous 
even in the dense population of New York, what 
must it be in the wilderness, where, according to Dr. 



Mason, himself an American, "they lose, by degrees, 
all anxiety for the institutions of Christ ; their feeble 
substitutes, the small social meetings, without the 
minister of grace, soon die away : their sabbaths are 
Pagan : their children grow up in ignorance, vice, and 
unbelief; and their land, which smiles around them 
like a garden of Eden, presents one unbroken scene 
of spiritual desolation." 

You seem to exult at the declaration made by the 
Archdeacon, that the legal establishment of Chris- 
tianity may not be necessary to the maintenance of 
religion in the country. We might go farther, and 
say, that neither churches, chapels, nor meeting- 
houses of any kind, are necessary to the maintenance 
of religion. Men might be religious without them. 
But the question is not one of necessity, but of de- 
gree, namely, whether, under the legal establishment 
of Christianity, its doctrines would or would not be 
nii>re widely extended, and better understood, in any 
particular community ? It is foreign to my purpose, 
to enter upon the state of religion in this country. 
In what garb it appears, and in what spirit it is pro- 
fessed in the United States of America, the reader 
will be enabled to judge, on the strength of the au- 
thorities, which I am about to produce. In doing 
this, I shall not confine myself to mere religious ex- 
ercises, or assemblies, but shall embrace such actions, 
as mark the moral and religious character of a people, 
as surely as " a tree is known by its fruit.'' 

The first testimony, is that of a man who departed 
from England to the United States, dissatisfied with 



the political and religious institutions of his own 
country ; and it adds no little credit to his testimony, 
that he was deputed by a circle of friends, consisting 
of forty families, " to visit and give a faithful report, 
in order to furnish them with materials to regulate 
their decision on the subject of emigration." But it 
adds still more weight to his testimony, when we 
find it was wrung from him by palpable and staring 
facts, in spite of deeply-rooted, and fondly-cherished 
prepossessions. 

The gentleman to whom I allude is Mr. Fearon, 
Plaistow, Essex. He visited the United States in the 
year 1817, for the purpose already mentioned. In 
1819, his book, on the subject, had reached a third 
edition. His own language will be the best criterion 
by which we may estimate the wishes and feelings of 
the Author, and the bitter disappointment of his golden 
dreams and fancies, on the subject of policy and re- 
ligion. Let Mr. Fearon, then, speak for himself, both 
as to feelings and fact. 

And first, as to feeling — 

" I perfectly rememember, indeed, the impressions 
with which I first visited America — impressions, 
which you all possessed in common with myself. 
America we believed to be (and I am sure we wished 
to find it so), the abode of freedom and toleration, in 
practice no less than in theory." 

" We fondly regarded it, indeed, as — 

" ' That land where self-government calls forth the mind. 
And the rights and the virtues of man are combined : 



8 



Where the thoughts, unrestrain'd, 'mid truth's regions may fly, 

Uncaged from the earth, may aspire to the sky. 

What the bosom conceives, that the tongue may express. 

Not bounded by bigots the power to bless. 

That land, where Rehgion's sweet voice may arise, 

Where, with Liberty, Virtue may walk 'neath the skies; 

Where, safe from each danger, secure from each storm. 

Lovely Freedom may nurse youthful Piety's form ; 

Where man, feehng his value, the impulse once given, 

May dare to deserve the rich blessings of heaven.' " 

Most of these lines are put in italics by Mr. Fearon, 
and were, no doubt, thought particularly fine. Religion 
singing. Liberty and Virtue walking arm in arm, and 
Freedom dandling a young Piety, are certainly sub- 
lime imasres. Before we have done, I fear we shall 
find that this "youthful Piety's form" not only wants 
nursing in this "land of liberty," but that the rickety 
creature would be of healthier constitution if nurtured 
a little more with "the milk of human kindness." 

" How far the country may have answered these 
our sanguine expectations — at least, how far I have 
believed them answered, I must leave each of you to 
conclude, from the facts I have forwarded, and the 
General tenor of my observation upon them." 

" At that period," says he, speaking of the first 
edition of his book, "sufficient time had not elapsed 
for the receipt, in this country, of a practical correction 
of that delusive enthusiasm, concerning the United 
States, which had been so widely propagated during 
the early part of the past year. Then, indeed, it was 
hardly possible to impress upon the mind of the Eng- 
lish advocate of enlightened opinions^ that America, 



judging from the frame of her government, could be 
ditferent, in reahty, to that which had been anticipated. 
Feehng this estimation of the repubhc to be general, 
it was with no ordinary anxiety that I submitted my 
reports to public scrutiny : now, however, within the 
short period of four months, accounts have arrived 
from so many quarters of the American Union, which, 
in all important points, confirm the general tenor of 
my ideas, that I should be affecting a degree of hu- 
mility which I do not feel, was I not to assert, that 
the opinions I have expressed on the subject of 
America, were the result of the most faithful inquin/ 
and ?nost solid conviction; and that whatever portion 
of regret may be felt upon the subject, it may be 
assumed, that my reports are but too true.^' [^Adver- 
tisement to the third edition.^ 

These preliminary extracts will, I think, be sufficient 
to show that Mr. Fearon entered the land of the 
United States a thick and thin admirer of her political 
and religious institutions ; and that, if his report is to 
be discredited at all, even in degree, he would be more 
likely to err in favor of the national character than 
against it. I do not mean, however, to charge him 
with want of candour or truth, that he did " extenuate, 
or aught set down in malice;" for, in direct oppo- 
sition to his darling anticipations and rooted preju- 
dices, he has recorded the most humiliating and 
mortifying facts. You say, "I conceive it requisite, 
that the public should be disabused of an impression, 
which both the clergy and the high-tory party, in this 
kingdom, are very desirous to make — that in America 

c 



10 



(meanino;, I suppose, the United States), there is no 
religion." They know. Sir, that religion is there "a 
rope of sand," and that she is frequently exhibited 
in the most degrading and disgusting form ; that her 
influence upon the great and leading principles of 
action are either not understood, or not recognized ; 
and they also know that Unitarianism is spreading 
far and wide amongst a people, whose self-sufficiency 
has already prepared the soil for its reception. 



11 



EXTRACTS. 



[No. L] 

NEW YORK— RELIGION. 

"Upon this interesting topic I would repeat, what indeed 
you are ah'eady acquainted with, that, legalli/, there is the 
most unlimited liberty. There is no state religion, and no 
government prosecution of individuals for conscience-sake. 
Whether those halcyon days, which would, I think, attend 
a similar state of things in England, are in existence here, 
must be left for future observation. There are five Dutch 
Reformed churches; six Presbyterian; three Associated 
Reformed ditto ; one Associated Presbyterian ; one Reformed 
ditto; five Methodist; two ditto ^br 6/flcA:s; one German 
Reformed; one Evangelical Lutheran ; one Moravian ; four 
Trinitarian Baptist; one Universalist; two Catholic; three 
Quaker; eight Episcopalian; one Jews' Synagogue ; and to 
this I would add a small meeting which is but little known, 
at which the priest is dispensed with, every member follow- 
ing what they call the apostolic plan of instructing each other, 
and ' building one another up in their most holy faith.' The 
Presbyterian and Episcopalian, or Chvrch of England sects, 
take the precedence in nvmbers and in respectability. Their 
ministers receive from two to eight thousand dollars per 
annum. All churches are well filled: they appear the 
fashionable places for </?sjo/a2/; and the sermons and talents 
of the minister ofler never-ending subjects of interest when 
social converse has been exhausted upon the bad conduct 
and inferior nature of niggars (negroes); the price of flour 
at Liverpool ; the capture of the Guierriere ; and the battle 
of New Orleans. The perfect equality of all sects seems to 
have deadened party feeling: controversy is but little known. 
The great proportion of attendants at any particular church 
appear to select it either because they are acquainted with 
the preacher, or that it is frequented by fashionable company, 
or their great grandmother went there before the Revolution, 
or because (what will generally have a greater weight than 
all these reasons), their interest will be promoted by their 
so doing.'' 



12 

[No. 2.] 

GENERAL RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 

" I feel little hopes of succeeding ivi conveying to yoii a 
faithful portraiture of this people in their reUgious character; 
they differ essentially from the English sectaries, in being 
more solemnly bigotted, more intolerant, and more ignorant 
of the Scriptures. Their freedom, from habits of thinking, 
seems to emanate from the cold indifference of their consti- 
tutional character, and their attaching no importance to 
investigation. There is also another feature in their religious 
national character, which will be considered by different men 
in opposite points of view. I do not discover those distinc- 
tive marks which are called forth in England by sectarianism. 
There is not the aristocracy of the establishment, the sour- 
ness of the Presbyterian, or the sanctified melancholy of the 
Methodist. A cold uniform bigotry seems to pervade all 
parties ; equally inaccessible to argument., opposed to investi- 
gation, and, I fear, indifferent about truth : as it is, even the 
proud Pharisaical Quaker appears under a more chilling and 
more freezing atmosphere in this new world." 

[No. 3.] 

SLAVERY. 

" The existence of slavery in the United States has, I 
know, long been to you all a subject both of regret and 
astonishment. New York is called a 'free state:' that it 
may be so theoretically, or when compared with its southern 
neighbours, I am not prepared to dispute; but if, in England, 
we saw in the Times newspaper such advertisements as the 
following, we should conclude that freedom from slavery 
existed only in words. The first is from the New York 
Daily Advertiser. I have not made a memorandum of the 
paper from which I extracted the second ; but no American 
will deny their originality ; and, ^vhat is worse, I fear there 
are few who would acknowledge their iniquity: 

<"TO BE SOLD, 

' A Servant- woman, acquainted with botii city and country business, about 
30 years of age, and sold because she wislies to change her place. Enquire 
at this office, or at 91, Cherry-street.' 

" ' FOR SALE OR HIRE, 

, ' A likely young Man-Servant, sober, honest, and well behaved. He would 
fiuit very well for a house servant or gentleman's waiter, being accustomed 
to both. Enquire at this office.' 



13 

• '* The number of blacks in this city is very great : they 
have instituted a ' Wilberforce Society : ' and look upon the 
Englishman, whose name they have taken, as the great saviour 
of their race. At Mrs. Bradish's boarding-house I saw but 
one white servant, and I should suppose there were, of her 
own and of her boarders', at least sixteen blacks. A negro 
child, about six years of age, often waited upon us at tea : 
the strength and dexterity of the little thing frequently 
excited my attention and sympathy. Female blacks often 
obstructed my passage up and down stairs. They lie about, 
clinging to the boards as though that had been the spot on 
which they had vegetated: several belonged to families from 
the south, and were, as a matter of course, held in uncon- 
ditional slavery. The men, whether regular servants of the 
house or not, equally attended upon all at table. There was 
one waiter, on an average, to four gentlemen ; yet, such was 
the want of system observed, that few could obtain what 
they desired. Soon after landing, I called at a hair-dresser's 
in Broad-way, nearly opposite the city-hall : the man in the 
shop was a negro. He had nearly finished with me, when a 
black man, very respectably dressed, came into the shop and 
sat down. The barber enquired if he wanted the proprietor 
or his boss, as he termed him, who was also a black : the 
answer was in the negative ; but that he wished to have his 
hair cut. My attendant turned upon his heel, and with the 
greatest contempt, muttered in a tone of proud importance, 
' We do not cut coloured men here, Sir.' The poor fellow 
walked out without replying, exhibiting in his countenance 
confusion, humiliation, and mortification. I immediately re- 
quested, that if the refusal was on account of my being pre- 
sent he might be called back. The hair-dresser was asto- 
nished : ' You cannot be in earnest, Sir,' he said. I assured 
him that I was so, and that I was much concerned in wit- 
nessing the refusal from no other cause than that his skin 
was of a darker tinge than my own. He stopped the motion 
of his scissars; and after a pause of some seconds, in which 
his eyes were fixed upon my face, he said, ' Why, I guess as 
how. Sir, what you say is mighty elegant, and you're an elegant 
man; but I guess you are not of these parts.' — ' I am from 
England,' said I, ' where we have neither so cheap nor so 
enlightened a government as yours, but we have no slaves.' — 
' Ay, I guessed you were not raised here ; you salt-water 
people are mighty grand to coloured people ; you are not so 
proud, and I guess you have more to be proud of; now I 
reckon you do not know that my boss would not have a 
single ugly or clever gentleman come to his store, if he cut 



14 

coloured men; now my boss, I guess, ordered me to turn 
out every coloured man from the store right away, and if I 
did not, he would send me off slick ; for the slimmest gentle- 
man in York would not come to his store if coloured men 
were let in; but you know all that, Sir, I guess, without my 
telling you ; you are an elegant gentleman too, Sir.' I as- 
sured him that I was ignorant of the fact which he stated ; but 
which, from the earnestness of his manner, I concluded must 
be true. ' And you come all the way right away from 
England. Well! I would not have supposed, I guess, that 
you come from there from your tongue ; you have no hard- 
ness like, I guess, in your speaking; you talk almost as well 
as we do, and that is what I never see, I guess, in a gentleman 
so lately from England. I guess your talk is within a grade 
as good as ours. You are a mighty elegant gentleman, and 
if you will tell me where you keep, I will bring some of my 
coloured friends to visit you. Well, you must be a smart 
man to come from England, and talk English as well as we 
do that were raised in this country.' At the dinner-table 
I commenced a relation of this occurrence to three American 
gentlemen, one of whom was a doctor, the others were in the 
law : they were men of education and of liberal opinions. 
When I arrived at the point of the black being turned out, 
they exclaimed, ' Ay, right, perfectly right, I would never go 
to a barber's where a coloured man was cut ! ' Observe, these 
gentlemen were not from the south ; they are residents of 
New York, and I believe were born there. I was upon the 
point of expressing my opinion, but withheld it, thinking it 
wise to look at every thing as it stood, and form a deliberate 
judgment when every feature was finally before me. They 
were amused with the barber's conceit about the English 
language, which I understand is by no means a singular view 
of the subject. 

" The general though not absolutely universal exclusion 
of blacks from the places of public worship where whites 
attend, I stated at the commencement. In perfect conformity 
with this spirit is the fact, that the most degraded white will 
not walk or eat with a negro ; so that, although New York is 
a free state, it is such only on parchment : the black Ameri- 
cans are in it practically and politically slaves ; the laws of 
the mind being, after all, infinitely more strong and more 
eifective than those of the statute book ; and it is these mental 
legislative enactments, operating in too many cases besides 
this of the poor negroes, which excite but little respect for 
the American character." 



15 

[No. 4.] 

CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 

" The sound now opened upon our view, with a light-house, 
at eighteen miles' distance. A Dutch ship sailed by, full of 
passengers. This sight did not meet with the approbation of 
my American friends. One of them, who was a farmer, was 
the first to express his opinion: 'There (said he) is some 
more of them 'ere salt-water fellows I guess; curse them I 
say; I guess if I had my will they should never be a salt- 
waterman employed in the States.' This was warmly as- 
sented to by those who stood near him. He continued, 
' What a jag (a load) there is of them 'ere salt-water fish 
lately conie into the States. I guess they are starving in the 
old countries, and when they come here they soon get kedge 
(brisk, or in good health and spirits), I wish every vessel that 
brings such freight might go to the bottom!"* 

[No. 5.] 

HUMANITY. 

" In the States of New York and Jersey the treatment of 
Americans of colour, by their white countrymen, is illiberal 
and barbarous." 

[No. 6.] 

COLLEGE AT CAMBRIDGE. 

" At Cambridge, four miles from Boston, is situated a col- 
lege, upon a large and liberal scale, Mr. Washington Adams, 
who is a student, took me to view it : it contains 250 apart- 
ments for officers and students. There is a philosophical 
apparatus, a hall for public recitations, a dining hall, and a 
valuable library, which contains a few, and almost the only 
standard works in the United States. Admission into the 
college requires a previous knowledge of mathematics, Latin, 
and Greek. AH students have equal rights — each class has 
peculiar instructors — they meet twice a day. There are 
quarterly and annual public examinations. This college is 
rt warded by the orthodox party as heretical in religious sub- 
jects — it being observed as somewhat remarkable, that most 
of the theological students leave Cambridge disaffected to- 
wards the doctrine of the Trinity. The stanch advocates 
of this system taking the alarm, they have established an 
academy for the education of young men, ' who must be com- 
pelled to learn and to defend the doctrine of their fathers^ 



16 

as the most effectual means to oppose the ' Cambridge here- 
sies.' A legislative act has not yet been obtained to incor- 
porate this establishment as a college. From my brief ob- 
servation of these two prominent parties, I should be induced 
to consider the Trinitarians to be much behind their English 
orthodox brethren in theological knowledge, liberality, and 
sincerity; and the Unitarians (or more properl}'^, the Anti- 
Trinitarians, for few have gone the whole length of Dr. 
Priestly) to be at the best too worldly-minded; — the open 
avowal of their opinions being a point upon which they 
appear to maintain general reserve." 

[No. 7.] 

QUAKER KILLING. 

" There once existed a law in Massachusetts, which awarded 
the punishment of death to the high crime of being a Quaker! 
It is hardly necessary to observe, that this barbarous statute, 
enacted by a people who themselves had fled from religious 
persecution, is not at present in existence." 

[No. 8.] 

SINCERITY IN RELIGION. 

" C/ericaZ gentlemen have here an astonishing hold upon 
the minds of men: the degree of reverential awe for the 
sanctity of their office, and the attention paid to the external 
forms of religion, approach almost to idolatry; — these feel- 
ings are, perhaps, never encouraged without becoming the 
substitute of real religion, and expelling the active and men- 
tal principles of Christianity. A man who values his good 
name in Boston, hardly dare be seen out of church at the 
appointed hours; — this would be viewed as a heinous crime 
by men who would consider the same individual's cheating 
his creditors as of small import." 

[No. 9.] 

BOSTON— COMPULSORY CONTRIBUTION IN SUP- 
PORT OF RELIGION. 

"The number of churches is as follows: viz. twelve Con- 
gregationalists {nine of which are said to be Anti-Trinitarian); 
two Episcopalian; three Baptist; one ditto for blacks; one 
Quaker; one Universalist ; one Roman Catholic; two Metho- 
dist ; one travelling preacher ditto. There being here no pe- 
culiar state religion, men are allowed the liberty of choosing 



17 

to which of the sects existing here they shall belong. To the 
support of' one of these, hotvever, they are compelled to con- 
tribute: and should they neither attend to the worship, nor 
believe in the doctrines of any of them, the payment must 
equally be made — and it then goes to the funds of the Con- 
gregationalist body." 

[No. 10.] 

PITSFIELD— IGNORANCE. 

"Ignorance, I suspect, exists a great deal more in Jact than 
in appearance. Men seldom converse upon any subject ex- 
cept those connected with their immediate pecuniary in- 
terest; — few appear to have any regard for the general exten- 
sion of liberty to the whole human family." 

[No. 11.] 

THE AUTHOR'S DISAPPOINTMENT. 

"My feelings are certainly those of disappointment; but 
feeling is a bad guide, and therefore its suggestions must re- 
main, at present, confined to my own bosom." 

[No. 12.] 
PHILADELPHIA. 

DOMESTIC COMFORT CLEANLINESS ORDER CIGAR 

SMOKING AT FUNERAL PROCESSIONS. 

"Last evening I drank tea at a genteel private house. — The 
furniture was splendid, the table profusely supplied, being 
loaded with fish, dried beef and sausages, and numerous 
other articles ; the bread and butter was roughly cut in huge 
hunks piled zig-zag. The children's faces were dirty, their 
hair uncombed, their dispositions evidently untaught, and all 
the members of the family, from the boy of six years of age, 
up to the owner (I was going to say master) of the house, 
appeared independent of each other. I have seen the same 
characteristics in other families — in some indeed decidedly 
the contrary ; but these latter would seem to be the excep- 
tions, and the former the general rule. 

" Funerals are uniformly attended by large walking proces- 
sions. In the newspapers I have frequently observed adver- 
tisements stating the deaths, and inviting all friends to attend 
the burial. The dead are seldom kept more than two days . 

D 



18 

At the time appointed, intimate friends enter the house, others 
assemble outside, and fall into the procession when the body 
is brought out. Sorrow does not seem depicted in the coun- 
tenances of an}^ but few wear mourning, and many smoke 
cigars; none appear chargeable with the hypocrisy described 
by the poet of ' mocking sorrow with a heart not sad.' " 

[No. 13.] 
PHILADELPHIA ELECTION. 

DEMOCRATIC ADDRESS. 

"'Citizens, Democrats, Americans! This is the day of 
the General Election ! If you value your own rights, your 
own happiness, your political characters, your liberties, or 
your Republican institution, every man to the poll, and vote 
the Democratic Ticket; it is headed with the name of the 
patriot William Findlay. — Citizens! the times are mo- 
mentous ! the seceders from the Democratic ranks have 
joined with our old and inveterate political enemies to put 
down Democracy. It is an unholy league between apostates 
and political traitors on the one part, and on the other the 
anglo-federalists, the monarchists, the aristocrats, the Hart- 
ford conventionalists, the blue-light men, the embargo break- 
ers, the Henryites, the men who in time of peace cried out 
for War! War! but who in time of war, called themselves 
\he Peace party. — Huzza for William Findlay, and no 
bribery. — A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether.'" 

federal address. 

"'William Findlay — 

" 1. A selfish politician, wdio never served his country, and 
always on the look-out for oflice. 2. An apostate federalist 
and time-server. 3. A constant office-hunter. 4. A treasury 
broker and public defaulter, who exchanged and used public 
money for his oicn heneft. 5. One who holds morality in 
contempt, and maintains and practices the maxim, that the 
end justifies the means, 6. One who has resorted to the 
basest falseholds to support himself 7. One who intrigued 
and bargained for the office, and openly electioneered for 
himself. 8. A state inquisitor, who would gag, if not immo- 
late every man, not of his own sect. 9- A man who has 
blended the public money with his own, and is yet to account 
for misdemeanor in office. 10. A barbarian, who holds that 
'the study of the law disqualifies a man from being a 
judge.'" 



19 

" Take notice who are the friends of William Findlav, 
—1. Traitors and apostates. 2. Inveterate aristocrats. 3. 
Office-holders and office-hunters. 4. Cormorants for the 
loaves and fishes, and friends only to themselves. 5. Fugi- 
tives from British gaols and justice." 

[No. 14.] 
REDEMPTIONERS. 

" A practice which has been often referred to hi connec- 
tion with this country, naturally excited my attention. It is 
that of individuals emigrating from Europe without money, 
and paying for their passage by binding themselves to the 
captain, who receives the produce of their labour for a certain 
number of years. 

" Seeing advertisements of which, I visited the ship, m 
company with a boot-maker of this city: — 

THE PASSENGERS 



« On board the brig Biibona, from Amsterdam, and who are willing to en- 
gao-e themselves for a limited time, to defray the expenses of their passage, 
consist of persons of the following occupations, besides women and children, 
viz. 13 farmers, 2 bakers, 2 butchers, 8 weavers, 3 taylors, 1 gardener, -5 
masons, 1 mill-sawyer, 1 white-smith, 2 shoe-makers, 3 cabinet-makers, I 
coal-burner, 1 barber, 1 carpenter, 1 stocking-weaver, 1 cooper, 1 wheel- 
wright, 1 brewer, 1 locksmith.— Apply on board of the Bubona, opposite 
Callowhill-street, in the river Delaware, or to W. Odlin and Co. No. 38, 
South Wharves. 
" Oct. 2." 

" As we ascended the side of this hulk, a most revolting 
scene of want and misery presented itself. The eye involun- 
tarily turned for some relief from the horrible picture ot 
human suffering, which this living sepulchre atVorded. Mr. 

enquired if there were any shoe-makers on board. 

The captain advanced: his appearance bespoke his office; 
he is an American, tall, determined, and with an eye that 
flashes with Algerine cruelty. He called in the Dutch lan- 
guage for shoe-makers, and never can I forget the scene 
which followed. The poor fellows came running up with 
unspeakable delight, no doubt anticipating a rehef from then- 
loathsome dungeon. Their clothes, if rags deserve that de- 
nomination, actually perfumed the air. Some were without 
shirts, others had this article of dress, but of a quality as 
coarse as the worst packing cloth. I enquired of several it 
they could speak English. They smiled, and gabbled, ' No 
Engly, No Engly,— one Engly talk Ship.' The deck was 
filthy. The cooking, washing, and necessary departments 
were close together. Such u the mercenary barbarity of th^ 



20 

Americans icho are engaged in this trade, that they crammed 
into one of those vessels 500 passengers, 80 of whom died on 
the passage. The price for women is about 70 dollars, men 
80 dollars, boys 60 dollars. When they saw at our depar- 
ture that we had not purchased, their countenances fell to 
that standard of stupid gloom which seemed to place them 
a link below rational beings. 

" An interesting occurrence is said to have taken place the 
other day, in connection with the German Redemptioners 
(as by a strange misnomer the Dutch are denominated). A 
gentleman of this city wanted an old couple to take care of 
his house; — a man, his wife, and daughter were offered to 
him for sale; — he purchased them. — They proved to be his 
father, his mother, and sister! ! 1" 

[No. 15.] 
PHILADELPHIA— RELIGIOUS SECTS. 

" Having heard that American methodists were distinguish- 
ed for an extreme degree of fanatical violence in their religious 
exercises, I visited the African church (all houses of religious 
assembly being denominated churches), in which were none 
but blacks; and in the evening, 'Ebenezer Church,' in which 
were only whites. As the latter possessed all the characteris- 
tics of the former, with considerable additions of its own, to 
that only (the white) it is necessary that I should call your 
attention. I went at 8 o'clock in the evening. The door was 
locked; but the windows being open, I placed myself at one 
of them, and saw that the church within was crowded almost 
to suffocation. The preacher indulged in long pauses, and 
occasional loud elevations of voice, which were always 
answered by the audience with deep groans. When the 
prayer which followed the sermon had ended, the minister 
descended from the pulpit, the doors were thrown open, and 
a considerable number of the audience departed. Understand- 
ing however that something was yet to follow, with conside- 
rable difficulty I obtained admission. The minister had 
departed, the doors were again closed, but about four hundred 
persons remained. One (apparently) of the leading members 
gave out a hymn, then a brother was called upon to pray : he 
roared and ranted like a maniac ; the male part of the audi- 
ence groaned, the female shrieked ; a man sitting next to me 
shouted ; a youth standing before me continued for half an 
hour bawling, 'Oh Jesus ! come down, come down, Jesus ! 
my dear Jesus, I see you ! bless me, Jesus ! Oh ! oh ! oh ! 
Come down, Jesus !' A small space further on, a girl about 



21 

11 years of age was in convulsions: an old woman, who I 
concluded was her mother, stood on the seat, holding her up 
in her arms, that her extacies might be visible to the whole 
assembly. In another place there was a convocation of holy 
sisters, sending forth most awful yells. A brother now stood 
forward, stating that ' although numbers had gone, he trusted 
the Lord would that night work some signal favors among his 
dear lambs.' Two sisters advanced towards him, refusing to 
be comforted, * for the Lord was with them :' another brother 
prayed — and another. 'Brother Macfaddin' was now called 
upon, and he addressed them with a voice which might 
almost rival a peal of thunder, the whole congiegation oc- 
casionally joining responsive to his notes. The madness now 
became threefold increased, and such a scene presented itself 
as I could never have pictur'd to my imagination, and as I 
trust, for the honor of true religion and of human nature, I 
shall never see again. Had the inhabitants of Bedlam been 
let loose, they could not have exceeded it. From forty to 
fifty were praying aloud and extemporaneously at the same 
moment of time: some were kicking, many jumping, all 
clapping their hands and crying out in chorus, ' Glory ! 
glory ! glory ! Jesus Christ is a very good friend ! Jesus Christ 
IS a very good friend ! Oh God ! oh Jesus ! come down ! 
Glory ! gloiy ! glory ! thank you, Jesus ! thank you, God ! 
Oh, Glory ! glory ! glory ! ! !* Mere exhaustion of bodily 
strength produced a cessation of madness for a few minutes. 
A hymn was given out and sung; praying then recommenced; 
the scene of madness was again acted, with if possible, 
increased efforts on the part of the performers. One of the 
brothers prayed to he kept from enthusiasm ! A girl of six 
years of age became the next object of attention. A reverend 
brother proclaimed that she 'had just received a visit from 
the Lord, and was in awful convulsions — so hard was the 
working of the spirit!' This scene continued for some time ; 
but the audience gradually lessened, so that by ten o'clock 
the lield of active operations was considerably contracted. 
The women however, forming a compact column at the most 
distant corner of the church, continued their shriekings with 
but little abatement. Feeling disposed to get a nearer sight 
of the beings who sent forth such terrifying yells, I endea- 
voured to approach them, but was stopped by several of the 
brethren, who would not allow of a near approach towards 
the holy sisterhood. The novelty of this exhibition had, at 
first sight, rendered it a subject of amusement and interest; 
but all such feelings soon gave way to an emotion of melan- 
choly horror, when I considered the gloomy picture it 



22 

represented of human nature, and called to mind that these 
manaical fanatics were blaspheming the holy name of Chris- 
tianity, and set so wicked an example of religious blasphemy, 
besides libelling the name and character of revelation. 

" I have since understood that one of the female converts 
upon this occasion had been turned away from her situation 
the previous evening for stealing five dollars. 

" A gentleman informed me that he was at 'Ebenezer' a 
few days since, when the preacher stopped in the midst of his 
discourse, and directed those among his audience who were 
for King Jesus to stand up. Numbers of men and women 
immediately rose, shouting ' I am for Jesus,' ' I am for Jesus,' 
*I am for King Jesus.' 'Oh, that I could press him to my 
bosom !' ' There he comes.' ' I am for King Jesus.' I am 
informed that these exhibitions are neither singular in occur- 
rence nor partial in extent, and feel at a loss to account for 
such fanatical enthusiasm in this country : it is by no means 
an essential ])art of the creed of either Wesley or Whitfield ; 
and, in Great Britain, few bodies of men conduct their 
meetings with more order than the methodists. In Wales, I 
understand, and perhaps in some country parts of England, 
there may be occasional exhibitions of the same kind ; but 
they are of rare occurrence, and comparatively moderate in 
their excesses. In Ireland I have also witnessed occasional 
violence; but never any thing at all equal to that exhibited 
at ' Ebenezer.' " 

[No. la] 

ESTIMATION OF NEGROES. 

" The three * African churches,' as they are called, are for 
all those native Americans who are black, or have any shade 
of colour darker than white. These persons, though many of 
them are possessed of the rights of citizenship, are not 
admitted into the churches which are visited by whites. 
There exists a penal law, deeply written in the minds of the 
whole white population, which subjects theii' coloured 
fellow-citizens to unconditional contumely and never-ceasing 
insult. No respectability, however unquestionable, — no pro- 
perty, however large, — no character, however unblemished, — 
will gain a man, whose body is (in American estimation) 
cursed with even a twentieth portion of the blood of his 
African ancestry, admission into society ! ! ! They are con- 
sidered as mere Pariahs — as outcasts and vagrants upon the 
face of the earth ! I make no reflection upon these things, 
but leave the facts for your consideration." 



23 

[No. 17.] 
ALLEGANY MOUNTAINS. 

CHARACTER OF INHABITANTS MODE OF LIVING. 

" The character of the mountain inhabitants appears cold, 
triendless, unfeehng, callous, and selfish. All the emigrants 
with whom I conversed, complained of the enormous charges 
at taverns. Log-houses are the oidy habitations for many- 
miles. They are formed of the trunks of trees, about twenty 
feet in length, and six inches in diameter, cut at the ends, 
and placed upon each other. The roof is framed in a similar 
manner. In some houses there are windows ; in others the 
door performs a double office. The chimney is erected out- 
side, and in a similar manner to the body of the house. Some 
have clay in their chimneys, which is a precaution very neces- 
sary in these western palaces. In some, the space between 
the logs remain open ; in others, it is filled with clay. The 
hinges are generally wood. Locks are not used. In some 
there are two apartments ; in others but one, for all the va- 
rious operations of cooking, eating, sleeping, and, upon great 
occasions, washing. The pigs also come in for their due 
share of the log residence." 

[No. 18.] 

PITTSBURGH— AMERICAN GASCONADE. 

" The published accounts of this city are so exaggerated 
and out of all reason, that strangers are usually disappointed 
on visiting it. This, however, was not my case. I have 
been in some measure tutored in American gasconade. When 
I am told that at a particular hotel there is handsome accom- 
modation, I expect that they are one remove from very bad ; 
if ' elegant entertainment,' I anticipate tolerable ; if a person 
is ' a clever man,' that he is not absolutely a fool ; and if a 
manufactory is the "-Jirst in the world,' I expect, and have 
generally found, about six men and three boys employed." 

[No. 19.] 
STATE OF OHIO. 

" I am now fairly entered upon the western country ; a 
tract which geographers tell us contains fifteen hundred 
thousand square miles, fifty thousand miles of internal navi- 
gation, one hundred thousand of river coast, with an endless 
intersection of rivers communicating with each other. To 



24 

the contemplative politician this presents a magnificent spec- 
tacle; such an one must feel equally anxious that this almost 
boundless theatre for human exertion may .neither be pol- 
luted by political institutions, pernicious and destructive in 
their own nature, nor present to the world the mockery of the 
best theoretical principles, which, while apparently possessed 
by the people, are virtually destroyed by an iniquitous per- 
version of their spirit." 

[No. 20.] 
SALE OF FREE NEGROES. 

"Many persons in this State have coloured people, which 
they call their property. The mode in w^hich they effect this 
perpetuation of slavery, in violation of the spirit of the Ohio 
constitution, is to purchase blacks, and to have them appren- 
ticed to them. Some are so base as to take these negroes 
down the river at the approach of the expiration of their 
apprenticeship, and sell them at Natchez Jor life! 

"Yet the first article of the Ohio constitution is, "All 
MEN are horn equally free and independent." 

[No. 21.] 
KENTUCKY. 

KENTUCKIANS, KIND-HEARTED CREATURES. 

" Being in the neighbourhood of Kentucky, I felt anxious 
to see a State that forms so very important a part of the 
"Western Country;" and although I knew it was a slave 
State, yet having seen so much of practical slavery in those 
States denominated free, I did not anticipate that one in 
which this deplorable order of things is legalized, could be 
really ivorse. In addition to this, I had received an impres- 
sion that the genuine Kentuckian had many excellent traits 
of character. Mr. Mellish says that ' they resemble the 
Irish ; are frank, affable, polite, and hospitable in a high de- 
gree ; they are quick in their temper, sudden in their resent- 
ment, and warm in all their affections.' A variation of cha- 
racter was evident in a trifling occurrence at the first tavern 
at which I put up : six gentlemen were seated at the dining- 
room fire drinking wine, and engaged in varied and rational 
conversation ; this was an instance of sociality which, com- 
mon as it may appear to you, / had not witnessed in my pre- 
vious icestern travels." 



25 

[No. 22.] 

WISE REGULATIONS. 

Rules to he observed by all Gentlemen ivJio cJioose to hoard at 
Lawe's Hotel, Middletown, Kentucky: 

1st. All Gentlemen to give in their names to the Bar- 
keeper. 

2nd. No Gentleman shall enter the dining-room until the 
second hell rings. 

3rd. No gambling allowed in the bed-rooms. 

4th. The doors closed at ten o'clock, except on the night 
of public amusement. 

5th. No Gentleman shall take the saddle, bridle, or harness 
of another Gentleman without his consent. 



LNo. 23.] 
MIDDLETOWN. 

CHRISTIAN AMUSEMENT TREATMENT OF NEGROES. 

" A few minutes before dinner, my attention was excited 
by the piteous cries of a human voice, accompanied with the 
loud cracking of a whip. Following the sound, I found that 
it issued from a log barn, the door of which was fastened. 
Peeping through the logs, I perceived the bar-keeper, toge- 
ther with a stout man, more than six feet high, who was 

called Colonel , and a negro boy, about 14 years of age, 

stript naked, receiving the lashes of these monsters, who re- 
lieved each other in the use of a horse-whip: the poor boy 
fell down upon his knees several times, begging and praying 
that they would not kill him, and that he would do any thing 
they liked: this produced no cessation in their exercise. At 
length Mr. Lawes arrived, told the valiant Colonel and his 
humane employer, the bar-keeper, to desist, and that the 
boy's refusal to cut wood was in obedience to his (Mr. L.'s) 

directions. Colonel said, that ' he did not knoiv ichat 

the nigyar had done, but that the bar-keeper requested his 
assistance to whip Cssar; of course he lent him a hand, 
being no more than he should expect Mr. Lawes to do for 
him under similar circumstances.' At table Mr. Lawes said, 
* that he had not been so vexed for seven years.' This ex- 
pression gave me pleasure, and also afforded me, as I thought, 

E 



26 

an opportunity to reprobate the general system of slavery; 
but not one voice joined with mine; each gave vent, in the 
following language, to the superabundant quantity of the milk 
of human kindness with which their breasts were overflow- 
ing:— 

"'I guess he deserved all he got.' 

"'It would have been of small account if the niggar had 
been whipt to death.' 

*" I always serve my b d niggars that way; there is 

nothing else so good for them.' 

" It appeared that this boy was the property of a regular 
slave-dealer, who was then absent at Natchez with a cargo. 
Mr. Lawes' humanity fell lamentably in my estimation when 
he stated, ' that whipping niggars, if they were his own, was 
perfectly right, and they always deserved it ; but what made 
him mad was, that the boy was left under his care by a 
friend, and he did not like to have a friend's property injured.' 

" There is in this instance of the treatment of a negro, 
nothing that in this State is at all singular ; and much as I 
condemned New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, when in those 
sections, I must now give them the character of enlightened 
humanity, compared with this State, in which such conduct 
as that 1 have described is tolerated and approved, and where 
such public notices as the following, extracted from a news- 
paper, are of every-day occurrence : — 

'TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD. 

'RAN AWAY, on the 27th instant, a NEGRO MAN named JACK, 
about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high, very stout made, of a dark complexion, and 
has several of his fore teeth rotten or out, about 25 years of age. He was 
brought from Lexington, Kentucky, by Messrs. Jacoby and Stone, negro 
traders, where I think it is likely he will try to get to. The above reward 
will be paid on his being apprehended and lodged in any gaol, so thai I may 
get him, together will all reasonable expenses, if brought to the subscriber. 

'Basil L&mab.' 

"Is it possible to read and to hear of these things, without 
exclaiming, in the indignant language of the poet, who, after 
describing the miseries of war, adds, 

" ' Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys; 
And worse than all, and most to be deplored. 
As human nature's broadest, foulest blot. 
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat 
With stripes, that Mercy, with a bleeding heart, 
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast. 
Then what is man ? And what man seeing this, 
And having human feelings, does not blush 
And hang his head to think himself a man?'" 



27 

[No. 24.] 
GOUGING AND GANDER-PULLING. 

" I do not feel myself competent to confirm o'r deny the 
general claim of the Kentuckians to generosity and warmth 
of character; of their habits I would wish to speak with 
equal diffidence; that they drink a great deal, swear a great 
deal, and gamble a great deal, will be apparent to a very 
brief resident. The barbarous practice of (/onging* with 
which they are charged, I have not seen occur, though I 
have good reason to believe in its existence. They have also 
another practice, nearly akin to this, called ' gander-pulling.' 
This diversion consists in tying a live gander to a tree or 
pole, greasing its neck, riding past it at full gallop, and he 
who succeeds in pulling oft" the head of the victim, receives 
the laurel crown." 

' [No. 25.] 
AUTHOR'S SORROW 

ON WITNESSING THE DEMORALIZING HABITS OF THE 

KENTUCKIANS. 

"On leaving Kentucky, I have to regret that so much 
remains to be done for the habits of the people, and to feel 
from my soul the most sincere sorrow, that men who can 
form a theoretic constitution, in which it is declared, that 
' men when they form a social compact are equal ; that no 
man or set of men are entitled to exclusive, separate public 
emoluments or privileges from the community, but in con- 
sideration of public services ; that all men have a natural and 
indefeasible right to worship God according to the dictates 
of their consciences;' I cannot, I say, but feel sorrow that 
men who can in theory lay down such principles, can in their 
practice continue, and even boast of the most demoralizing 
habits, treat their fellow-creatures worse than brute beasts, 
and buy and sell human beings like cattle at a fair." 

[No. 26.] 

INHABITANTS OF ILLINOIS— DIRKING. 

" The inhabitants of Illinois may, perhaps, be ranked as 
follows: 1st, the Indian hunters, who are neither different in 
character or pursuits from their ancestors in the days of Co- 
lumbus. 2nd, The ' Squatters,' who are half-civilized and 
half-savage. These are, in character and habits, extremely 

* Gouging is performed by twisting the liair of the temples round the 
fore iinger, and scooping out the eye with llie Ihuuib. 



28 

wretched : indeed, I prefer the genuine uncontaminated In- 
dian. 3rd. A medley of land-jobbers, lawyers, doctors, and 
farmers, who traverse this immense continent, founding set- 
tlements, and engaging in all kinds of speculation. 4th, Some 
old French settlers, possessed of considerable property, and 
living in ease and comfort. 

" Concerning the state of society, my experience does not 
allow me to say much, or to speak with confidence. Gene- 
rally, I suspect that the powers of the legislature are, as yet, 
weak in their operation. Small provocations insure the most 
relentless and violent resentments. Duels are frequent. The 
dirk is an inseparahle companion of all classes ; and* the laws 
are robbed of their terror, by not being firmly and equally 
administered." 

[No. 27.] 
AUTHOR'S REFLECTIONS. 

' State of Virg-inia and Washinarton City, 
February and Marcli, 1818. 

" At the date of my last, in December, I had not left the 
Illinois. Since my departure from that territory to the pre- 
sent time, I have travelled a vast distance, and I lament to 
say, there is little of which I, or indeed any man among you, 
could be induced to make a permanent settlement. The 
tvhite population are the victims of demoralizing habits. 
The native Indians present, of course, nothing but a picture 
of mere savage life; and the poor negroes sulfer even more 
than commonly falls to the lot of their oppressed and de- 
graded condition. What a foul stain upon the republic, 
professing, as it does, the principles of liberty and equal 
rights, that, out of twenty States, there should be eleven in 
which slavery is an avowed part of their political constitu- 
tion; and that in those called free (New England excepted) 
the condition of blacks should practically amount to slavery ! 
Like the Greeks of old, they talk of freedom, while the de- 
graded Helot is within their doors." 

[No. 28.] 
NATCHEZ. 

PROFLIGACY — SLAVE MARKET. 

" Natchetz, in the State of Mississippi, stands on a bluff, 
about 250 yards above the level of the river, a situation, from 
what I have seen, very unusual on the Mississippi, the greater 
part being level, and often overflowing its banks. The land- 



29 

ing-place is on the river edge, about half a mile from the 
town. At this place there are about thirty houses, the 
greater part of which are whiskey shops, gambling and other 
houses, in which there is a degree of open profligacy, which 
I had not before witnessed in the United States. While 
contemplating this melancholy scene, my attention was di- 
rected to the number of boats which were then in port. 
They consisted of twenty-five flats, seven keels, and one 
steam-vessel. 

" Observing a great many coloured people, particularly 
females, in these boats, I concluded that they were emigrants, 
who had proceeded thus far on their route towards a settle- 
ment. The fact proved to be, that fourteen of the flats were 
freighted with human beings for sale!!! They had been 
collected in the several States by slave dealers, and shipped 
from Kentucky for a market. They were dressed up to the 
best advantage, on the same principle that jockeys do horses 
upon sale. The following is a specimen of advertisements 
on this subject: — 

'TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD, 

'Will be paid for apprehending and lodging in gaol, or delivering to the 

subscriber, the following slaves, belonging to Joseph Irvin, of 

Iberville : — 

' TOM, a very light mulatto, blue eyes, 5 feet 10 inches high, appears to 

be about 35 years of age, an artful fellow ; — can read and write, and preaches 

occasionally. 

' CHARLOTTE, a black wench, round and full-faced, tall, straight, and 

likely about 25 years of age, and wife of the above-named Tom. 

' These slaves decamped from their owner's plantation, on the night of the 
14th of September inst. 

' William Kenner & Co.' 

" The treatment of the negroes throughout these States is 
as villanous as can be well imagined ; and although they are 
themselves not insensible to the evils of their condition, they 
do not seem to feel it so acutely as might be anticipated, or as 
the man of common humanity would feel on their account. 
This, however, is natural enough, and easy to account for. 
As the body is enslaved, the mind becomes degraded, and 
loses a sense of its dignity, and of the value of independence." 

[No. 29.] 

HOLY LOTTERY. 

Lotteries are as prevalent here as in the eastern States ; the 
one carrying on at this time is for building a Presbyterian 
church! The 'scheme' is preceded by a long address upon 
the advantages of religion, and the necessity of all citizens 
supporting Christianity by purchasing tickets in this holy 
lottery ! ! 



30 

[No. 30.] 
NEW ORLEANS. 

author's reflections MANNERS — HABITS — PUBLIC 

AMUSEMENTS. 

*' Under the government of America, every man is left 
to pursue the bent of his own inclination, and to go to the 
full extent of his means ; — there exists no monopoly, except 
that which superior talent or property always must, and 
always ought to confer. The consequence of this state of 
things is, that the United States are making unprecedented 
strides towards substantial wealth and national greatness, 
though cursed, as I am sorry — mortified to the heart to be 
obliged to confess, with a population undeserving of their 
exuberant soil and free government, 

" The general manners and habits are very relaxed. The 
first day of my residence here was Sunday, and I was not a 
little surprised to find in the United States the markets, 
shops, theatre, circus, and public ball-rooms open. Gambling- 
houses throng the city: all coffee-houses, together with the 
exchange, are occupied from morning until night by game- 
sters. It is said that when the Kentuckians arrive at this 
place, they are in their glory, finding neither limit to, nor 
punishment of their excesses. The general style of living is 
luxurious. Houses are elegantly furnished. The ball-room, 
at Davis's hotel, I have never seen exceeded in splendour. 
Private dwellings partake of the same character; and the 
ladies dress with expensive elegance. The sources of public 
amusement are numerous and varied ; among them I remark 
the following : 

'INTERESTING EXHIBITION. 

'On Sunday the 9lh inst. will be represented in the place where Fire- 
works arc generally exhibited, near the Circus, an extraordinary fight of 
Furious Animals. The place where the animals will fight is a rotunda of 
160 feet in circumference, with a railing 17 feet in height, and a circular 
gallery well conditioned and strong, inspected by the Mayor and surveyors 
by him appointed. 

« 1st Fight — A strong Attakapas Bull, attacked and subdued by six of the 
strongest dogs of the country. 

« 2nd Fight — Six Bull-dogs against a Canadian Bear. 

' 3rd Fight — A beautiful Tiger against a Black Bear. 

« 4th Fight — Twelve dogs against a strong and furious Opeloussas Bull. 

» If the Tiger is not vanquished in his fight with the Bear, he will be sent 
alone against the last Bull ; and if the latter conquers all his enemies, seve- 
ral pieces of fire-works will be placed on his back, which will produce a very 
entertaining amusement. 

' In the Circus will be placed two Manakins, which, notwithstanding the 
eflbrls of the Bulls to throw them down, will always rise again, whereby the 
animals will get furious. 



31 

' The doors will be opened at tbree, and the Exhibition begin at four 
o'clock nrecisely. 

' Ailmittance — one dollar for grown persons, and 50 cents for children. 

* A military band will perform during the Exhibition. 

' If Mr. Renault is so happy as to amuse the spectators by that new spec- 
tacle, he will use every exertion to diversify and augment it, in order to 
prove to a generous public, whose patronage has been hitherto so kindly 
bestowed upon him, how anxious he is to please them.' 

" I visited the theatre : it is an old building, about two- 
thirds the size of the little theatre in the Haymarket. The 
play was ' John of Calais,' well performed by a French com- 
pany to a French audience. At a tavern opposite, I wit- 
nessed a personal conflict, in which I suppose one of the 
parties was dirked. These things are of every-day occur- 
rence ; and it is not often that they are taken cognizance of 
by the police." 

[No. 31.] 

LAWS OF LOUISIANA. 

" The English law is the law of Louisiana, with such ad- 
ditions as local circumstances have rendered necessary ; one 
of which that was cited upon this occasion, is a law against 
•biting off the ear, the nose, tearing out the eyes,' &c. I was 
proceeding to remark upon the condition of negroes in Louis- 
iana, but an official document lying before me, upon the 
subject, I prefer forwarding to you, without note or com- 
ment, except to observe that such regulations as these exist 
in spirit throughout nine at least, if not eleven more of the 
State republics ! 

' CITY COUNCIL OF NEW ORLEANS. 

*An Ordinance in relation to slaves in the city and suburbs of New Orleans^ 
as also in the neighbourhood thereof, and to no other persons herein men- 
tioned, 

* The City Council ordains as follow : 

'Art. 1. No slave or slaves within the city and suburbs of New Orleans, 
and the neighbourhood thereof, shall have, hold, occupy, reside or sleep in 
any house, out-house, building or enclosure, other than his or her owner's, 
or his or her owner's representatives, or of the person whom he is or they are 
serving for hire, without first obtaining a ticket or tickets from his, her, or 
their owner or owners, expressly describing the place which such slave or 
slaves is or are allowed respectively to occupy, reside, or sleep in j and spe- 
cifying also the time during which the aforesaid permission or permissions is 
or are granted; and every slave holding, occupying, residing or sleeping in 
any house, out-house, building or enclosure, without obtaining the permis- 
sion aforesaid, shall be committed to the gaol by any officer of police, or any 
other white person, there to receive twenty lashes, on a warrant from the 
Mayor, or from a Justice of the Peace, unless the owner or owners of such 
slave or slaves shall previously pay a fine of five dollars for each of them, 
with all costs and charges. 



32 

'Art. 6. The assemblies of slaves for the purpose of dancing or other 
merriinent, shall take place only on Sundays, and solely in such open or 
public places as shall be appointed by the Mayor; and no such assembly 
shall continue later than sunset; and all slaves who shall be found assembled 
together on any other day than Sunday, or who, even on that day, shall con- 
tinue their dances after sunset, shall be taken up by the officers of police, 
constables, watchmen or other white persons, and shall be lodged in the 
public gaol, where they shall receive from 10 to 25 lashes, on a warrant from 
the Mayor or a Justice of the Peace ; the clauses specified in the preceding 
article against all owners or occupants of houses or lots, forming or tolerating 
such assemblies on their premises, being in full force against them. 

' Art. 7. No person giving a hall to free people of colour shall, on any 
pretext, admit or suffer to be admitted to the said ball any slave, on penalty 
of a fine from 10 to 50 dollars; and any slave admitted to any such ball shall 
receive 15 lashes. 

'Art. 8. Every slave, except such as may be blind or infirm, who shall walk 
in any street or open place with a cane, club, or other stick, shall be carried 
to the police gaol, where he shall receive 25 lashes, and shall moreover forfeit 
every such cane, club or other stick, to any white person seizing the same; 
and every slave carrying any arms whatever, shall be punished in the manner 
prescribed by the Black Code of this State. 

'Art. 9. If any slave shall be guilty of whooping or hallooing any where 
in the city and suburbs, or of making any clamorous noise, or of singing 
aloud any indecent song, he or she shall for each and every such offence, re- 
ceive at the police gaol, on a warrant from the Mayor, or any Justice of 
Peace, a number of 20 lashes or stripes ; and if any such offence be com- 
mitted on board any vessel, the master or commander thereof shall forfeit 
and pay a sum of 20 dollars for each and every such offence. 

' Art. 10. Every slave who shall be guilty of disrespect towards any white 
person, or shall insult any free person, shall receive 30 lashes, upon an order 
from the Mayor, or Justice of the Peace. 

'Art. 13. The present ordinance shall be printed in the usual Gazettes, 
and shall moreover be published by drum-beat, within the city and suburbs 
twice a week during filleen days, and once every month after time. 

'J. SOU LIE, Recorder. 
'Approved, October 15th, 18lf. 

'AUG. MAC ARTY, 

' Nov. 3. Mayor." 

[No. 32.] 

VIRGINIA. 

" The 'Virginian dynasty,' as it has been called, is a sub- 
ject of general, and I think very just, complaint throughout 
other parts of America. This State has supplied four of the 
five presidents, and also a liberal number of occupants of 
every other government office. The Virginians very mo- 
destly assert, that this monopoly does not proceed from cor- 
rupt influence, but is a consequence of the buoyancy and 
vigour of their natural talent. 

"Without entering into the controversy, whether or not 
seventeen States can supply a degree of ability equal to that 
of Virginia single-handed, I must express my want of respect 
for a State in which every man is either a slave-holder, or a 
defender of slavery — a State in which landed property is not 



33 

attachable for debt— a State in which human beings are sold 
in the streets by the public auctioneer, are flogged without 
trial at the mercy of their owner or his agents, by whom in^ 
deed they may be murdered, almost without punishment; — yet 
these men dare to call themselves democrats, and J'riends of 
liberty !—from such democrats, and such friends of liberty y 
good Lord deliver us!" 

[No. 33.] 

NATIONAL GRATITUDE— VETERANS OF THE 

REVOLUTION. 

" I have been highly interested upon several occasions, by 
being in company with some of the veterans of the revolu- 
tion. There is a something in the associations connected 
with that immortal cause, which attracts insensibly towards 
those who were engaged in it feelings of respect — almost of 
reverence. The attention of the government has lately been 
directed towards these men in consequence of discussions 
which have taken place in congress relative to what is called 
"Revolutionary Claims:" these claims are for monies ad- 
vanced, or services rendered, which have never been repaid 
or recompenced. The leader of this poor but sacred band 
of national creditors, is General St. Clair. This respectable 
veteran is now 80 years of age; he was the companion of 
Washington, engaged in his country's service at the gloomiest 
periods of the revolution, fought and bled in the cause of 
liberty; when the national finances were bankrupt, he ad- 
vanced 1800 dollars of his private property for the common 
defence: this sum has never been repaid ; and in consequence 
of the scanty amount of his annual income, he has been com- 
pelled to take up his abode in the wilderness. This aged 
patriot, with clothes which might seem from their appear- 
ance to have felt the efiiects of all the seasons for the last ten 
years, with flaxen hair, tottering limbs, a care-worn counte- 
nance, deeply dejected from supposing his country ungrate- 
ful, and with one foot in the grave, is now a petitioner to that 
people in whose service he spent his youth, his treasure, and 
his blood, aiding them in their emancipation from external 
dominion, and in raising them into a great and an independent 
nation." 

[No. 34.] 

JUDGES. 

" Some of the Judges are, doubtless, men of superior legal 
knowledge, and high standing in society ; but there are others 

F 



34 

who certainly are not in possession of the former, though 
they may be of the latter qualification; as, for instance, the 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas at Newark, who, I am 
informed, is a butcher — not a butcher retired from business 
and become a lawyer, but he attends to both trades, even on 
the same day, selling at seven o'clock in the morning a leg of 
mutton, and at eleven supplying his customers with a slice 
of Blackstone. Much evil must necessarily result from this 
heterogenous admixture of ignorance with learning." 

[No. 35.] 

MOORE'S 'VIEW OF AMERICA.' 

*• The remark is now an old one, 'That Americans have 
no national character.' Half a century ago the observation 
was probably correct; but I think a personal acquaintance 
will show its utter want of foundation at the present period. 
Their national character, in my judgment, is broadly and dis- 
tinctly marked; and, as is common with that of other na- 
tions, partakes of a mixture of wisdom and folly, of virtue' 
and vice, of some excellencies and of great defects. Although 
I cannot go the whole length of Moore's description of them, 
yet with a mind constituted, as I presume his to be, and with 
the disappointments which his strong prepossessions in favour 
of America must have given rise to, I can easily conceive that 
he would not find much difficulty in concluding that — 'The 
rude familiarity of the lower orders, and indeed the un- 
polished state of society in general, would neither surprise nor 
disgust if they seemed to flow from that simplicity of cha- 
racter, that honest ignorance of the class of refinement, which 
may be looked for in a new and inexperienced people. But 
when we find them arrived at maturity in most of the vices, 
and all the pride of civilization, while they are still so remote 
from its elegant characteristics, it is impossible not to feel 
that this youthj'ul decay, this crude anticipation of' the natu- 
ral period of corruption J represses every sanguine hope of the 
future greatness and energy of America.'" 

[No. 36.] 
EFFECTS OF SLAVERY upon the CHARACTER. 

" The existence of slavery in the United States has a most 
visible effect upon the national character. It necessarily 
brutalizes the minds of the southern and western inhabitants ; 



35 

it Icwers, indeed, the tone of humane and correct feeHiij^ 
throughout the Union; and imperceptibly contributes to the 
existence of that great diflerence which here exists between 
theory and practice." 

[No. 37.] 

BRISTED's 'RESOURCES of the UNITED STATES.' 

"'The liberties of Britain are not ahont to expire under lie 
pressure of her military, or the encroachments oj' her c/overr^ 
ment. If they are to perish, they icill perish under the daq- 
ffers of her Democracy. If she is to he blotted out of the 
list of independent and powerful nations, it tvill be by the 
parricidal hand of her own rabble, led on to their oum and 
their country's ruin, by anarchical reformers, alike bankrupt 
in fortune, character, reputation, and principle y — Yet, it is 
said, "*/o crown all, the Political Sovereignty of the 
nation residing in the people, yives the American people an 
elevation unknown and unattainable in any other country.'" 
"'Liberty has struck deep root in this country. It is' en- 
twined with the first affections of the heart: it is spun into 
the primitive staple of the mental frame of the Americans. 
It thoroughly pervades, and perceptively modifies even their 
domestic life. It has, in fine, become the common reason, 
and the want of the whole American people.'" — " ' The pros- 
perity and happiness of the American citizens seem too 
great a price to pay for the privilege of manufacturing a few 
yards of broad cloth, or a few pieces of muslin. England 
herself is a portentous illustration of this truth : now at this 
time, and for the last five and twenty years, her manufac- 
turing districts have sent forth, and are issuing out, full bands 
of Luddites and Spenceans, and Jacobins and anarchists, and 
rebels and assassins, that continually put to the strength, and 
strain the nerves of her government.'" " I send these ex- 
tracts for the purpose of presenting you at one view the mind 
of the whole Federal party, and indeed that of the entire 
American people, concerning English reformers and United 
States' liberty." 

[No. 38.] 

BIRKBECK CUTTING HIS OWN THROAT. 

" I much doubt, could I now converse with Mr. Birkbeck, 
with his present improved knowledge of the American peo- 
ple, whether he would at this moment award to them the 
meed of superiority of character, more especially in corinec- 



36 

tion with their ' habits^ — and with regard to the ' manners of 
polished life,' and their being carried ' euen to the heart of 
the Allegany mountains' — I am surprised at the assertion; 
but wishing to speak with proper deference of Mr. Birkbeck, 
and in looking back to what I myself saw of the inhabitants 
of those mountains, I really cannot see how we can talk of 
the ' manners of polished life' in a tract of country which pre- 
sents an absence of all regard to manners, together with an ab- 
solute indifference to every person, and a cold disregard of all 
objects, except as they may promote the merely mercenary and 
selfish pursuits of each individual. Indeed, without calling 
upon you to trust to my impressions, I can scarcely see how 
the existence of these ' manners of polished life' is reconcile- 
able with what Mr. Birkbeck himself acknowledges, — and 
that unwillingly too; but that feeling by no means weakens 
the force of his testimony on the subject; he says then, ' that 
he has seen a deformity so fjeneral, that he cannot help es- 
teeming it national,' which is, ' that cleanliness in houses, and 
too often in person, is neglected to a degree which is very 
revolting to an Englishman.' In comparing the two coun- 
tries, and previous to awarding the palm of excellence in 
morals and manners to the inhabitants of the New World, 
let us remember also the strong but too well-founded asser- 
tion of Mr. Birkbeck (p. i05.), that ' intellectual culture has 
not yet made much progress among the generality of either 
sex;' and more than this, and worse than this, that ' All 
America is now suffering in morals through the baleful in- 
fluence of negro slavery, partially tolerated, corrupting jus- 
tice at the very source.'" (p. 25.) 

[No. 39.] 

LAWS. 

" These laws, we are told, have been made, ' anxiously stu- 
dious of mildness;' but that in practice ' they seem ineffici- 
ent:' for that ' deeds of savage and even ferocious violence' 
are committed, ' too common to be viewed with the abhor- 
rence due to them.' (p. 97.) This admission of such a dif- 
ference between the theory of law and its practical execution, 
is of the first importance to every man who contemplates 
becoming a member of such a community : and this though 
we are told in the succeeding paragraph, that the innate feel- 
ing of justice is so strong, that * if a man, whom the public 
voice has proclaimed a thief or a swindler, escapes from 
justice for the want of legal proof of his guilt, though the 

LAW ANP A JURY OF HIS FELLOW-CITIZENS HAVE AC- 



37 

QUITTED HIM, ten to One hut he is met ivith before he 
can quit the nei(/hbo7(rhood, and, tied up to a sapling, re- 
ceives a scourging that marks him for the rest of his life ! ! I ' 

(p. 97, 98.) 

" This is certainly another most important admission; and 
although it may be passed off" in half seriousness — half raille- 
ry — yet it is no joke to be told that a man, whom " the laws 
and a *jury of his fellow-citizens have acqiiitted," should be 
liable 'to be tied up to a sapling, and receive a scourging that 
may mark him for the rest of his life.* There are no doubt 
some instances where this barbarous ])rocedure would be 
merited; but how often is the 'public voice' mistaken in its 
•proclamations?' It is also to be presumed, that many of 
these innate lovers of justice were not in court, could not 
have heard the evidence, and yet they exercise, at the dicta- 
tion of their own sovereign will, the power of inflicting a 
punishment more severe than would have attended con- 
victed villany. The judges too would seem to partake of 
this 'free' order of things. 'A notorious offender had 
escaped from confinement, and, mounted on a capital horse, 
paraded the town where the judge resided with a brace of 
pistols, calling at the stores and grog-shops, and declaring 
he would shoot any man who should attempt to molest him. 
The judge hearing of it, loaded a pistol, walked deliberately 
up to the man to apprehend him, and on his making a show 
of resistance, shot him immediately !" (p. 62.) 

[No. 40.] 

" Gain is the education — the morals, the politics, the theo- 
logy, and stands in the stead of the domestic comforts of all 
ages and classes of Americans ; it is the centre of their sys- 
tem, from Avhich they derive both light and heat." « 

[No. 41.] 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 

"In going to America then, I would say generally, the 
emigrant must expect to find — not an economical or cleanly 
people ; not a social or generous people ; not a people of en- 
larged ideas; not a people of liberal opinions, or towards 
whom you can express your thoughts 'free as air;' not a 
people friendly to the advocates of liberty in Europe ; not a 
people who understand liberty from investigation and from 
principle ; not a people who comprehend the meaning of the 
words * honour' and 'generosity.'" 



38 

[No. 42.] 
SLAVE MARKET.— From CAPT. Hx\LL. 

" A long table was placed in the middle of the street, upon 
which the Negroes were exposed, not one by one, but in 
families at a time. From this conspicuous station they were 
shown off by two auctioneers, one at each end of the table, 
who called out the biddings, and egged on the purchasers by 
chanting the praises of their bargains. 

" These parties of slaves varied in number — the first con- 
sisted of an old infirm woman, a stout broad-shouldered man 
(apparently her son), his wife, and two children. The auc- 
tioneer, having told the names of each, and described their 
qualifications, requested the surrounding gentlemen to bid. 
One hundred dollars for each member of the family, or 500 
for the whole party, was the first offer: this gradually rose to 
150, at which sum they were finally knocked down, that is to 
say, 750 dollars for the whole, or about =£170. Several other 
families were then put up in succession, who brought from 
250 to 260 dollars each member, including children at the 
breast, as well as old people quite incapable of work. 

" The next party was exceedingly interesting; the principal 
person was a stout well-built man, or, as the auctioneer called 
him, ' a fellow, who was a capital driver :' his wife stood by 
his side, a tall, finely proportioned, and really handsome 
woman, though as black as jet; her left arm encircled a child 
about six months old, who rested in the oriental fashion on 
the hip bone — to preserve the balance, her body was inclined 
to the right, where two little urchins clung to her knee, one 
of whom, evidently much frightened, clasped its mother's 
hand, and never relinquished it during the sale which followed. 
The husband looked grave, and somewhat sad ; but there was 
a manliness in the expression of his countenance, which ap- 
peared strange in a person placed in so degraded a situation. 
What struck me most, however, was an occasional touch 
of anxiety about his eye as it glanced from bidder to bidder, 
when new offers were made; it seemed to imply a perfect 
acquaintance with the character of the different parties com- 
peting for him, and his happiness or misery for life, he might 
think, turned upon a word. 

" The whole of this pretty group were neatly dressed, and 
altogether so decorous in their manner, that I felt my interest 
in them rising at every instant. The two little boys, who 
appeared to be twins, kept their eyes fixed steadily on their 
mother's face ; at first they were quite terrified, but eventually 



39 

they became as tranquil as their parents. The" struggle' 
amongst the buyers continued for nearly a quarter of an hour, 
till at length they were knocked down for 290 dollars a piece, 
or 1450 dollars for the whole family, about o£?330 sterling." 

[No. 43.] 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 

Extracted from the New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser, 

April 27, 1S31. 

SALE. 

' Isf.— LANDED PROPERTY. 

* A parcel of Land, situate in the parish of St. Charles, on the right bank 
of the river Mississippi, about one mile and a half above the sugar plantation, 
where the late Pierre Bauchet St. Martin resided, measuring 2 arpenls front 
by 80 in depth, bounded on one side by the land of Charles Perrot, senior, 
and on the other by the plantation of the widow de Neubourg, together with 
the buildings erected thereon, as described in the inventory taken of the 
aforesaid estate, which shall be submitted to the inspections of persons 
attendinp: the said sale. 



'O 



'2Hd«2/.— SLAVES. 

* The following slaves, to wit: 56 in number, from 2 to 60 years of age.' 

< TEN DOLLARS REWARD 

* Will be paid for the apprehension of the negro woman RACHEL, who 
ran away on the night of the 20th ; she is about 30 years of age, 5 feet 4^ 
inches high, rather slim made, high and narrow chested, throws her head on 
one side, and prims her mouth when speaking, has rather an impudent look, 
is very plausible, and speaks only English; she has lately arrived in this city 
from Charleston ; had on when she left, a blue domestic frock, a check apron 
with arm holes, and a narrow black ribbon round her neck: the above reward 
will be paid on her being lodged at the jail in this city, or in any jail, and in- 
formation given thereof at the office of the Mercantile Advertiser: masters 
ofvessels and all others are cautioned against harbouring the said negro woman, 
under the severest penalties of the law, [a 22] G. B. PHILIPPL 

'TEN DOLLARS REWARD 

'Will be paid for the apprehension of the boy NELSON, or BELFAST 
(known by either name), about 23 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches in height, 
thin, and awkward in moving, lias a scar about the size of a dollar on the 
temple next the right eye, and has a simple expression of countenance. Said 
negro has been a fireman on board of a steam boat, and is much attached to 
running on the river. Masters of steam boats are cautioned against him, as 
he will no doubt attempt to secrete himself on some boat bound for the wes- 
tern country. The above reward will be paid on his being lodged in jail in 
this city, or on his delivery to [a 20] M. HARRIS. 

From L'Abeille, New Orleans, May ^th, 1831. 
'BY T. MOSSY. 

' On Monday, May 9, next, at 12 o'clock, at the Exchange coffee house, 
will be sold, 

' An African Negro named Philippe, aged 30 years, carter and ploughman ; 
an American negro named Allain, aged 28 years, cartman, ploughman and 



40 

sawyer; an African negro named Pierre, aged 29 years, field hand. Ail the 
above slaves are warranted against all vices and diseases contemplated by 
law, and are honest fellows. 

' Payable in March, 1832, in approved endorsed paper, with mortgage until 
final payment. 

* April 29. 

From the New York Evening Journal, 

' \ fellow advertises a run away slave, in a Charleston paper, to be delivered 
to him at " Liberty Hall ! " — He says : 

' Will may be known by the incisions of the whip on his hack ; and I suppose 
he has taken the road to Coosahatchie, where he has a wife and five children, 
whom I sold last week to Mr. Gellispir." 

[No. 44.] 

" Wanhoroiigh, Illiiiois, Nov. 30, 1823. 

" I will now say a little about the Americans. They are a 
nasty lazy set, for they live in such a manner I would sooner 
live in one of your hogstyes than live with them; boasting 
about their I and | section of land, when they have not more 
than 5 or 6 acres under cultivation, and suffer the weeds to 
grow so that you can scarce know if ever the land was 
ploughed or not. Corn or Indian wheat is their sole produce, 
with this they feed their cattle and live themselves; their 
cabins are badly built — hogs and cattle are allowed to come 
up the door, for windows they have none ; themselves go in 
and out, never clean their shoes nor the women their houses; 
chew and smoke tobacco to a degree truly disgusting; the 
women smoke as well as the men, and spit to that degree that 
they look such wretches they do not ought to bear the name 
of human beings at all. There is no honesty in the Ameri- 
cans, gentle as well as simple they are all alike for that. The 
Americans that come here from the eastward are called 
Yankees, and I really believe they are worse than the Back- 
woods-men for they are sure to cheat you if they can ; they 
are fond of gambling — don't care how they get their living if 
so they have not to work." 

(A literal copy.) 

This letter is from George Hearsum, who accompanied Mr. 
Birkbeck to his Western settlement, and is addressed to Mr. 
Samuel Cutting, sen., Swelland, near Ipswich, Old England. 

Let us not suppose that this beastly practice is confmed to 
the Backwoods-men. — When Mr. Fearon was at Washington, 
a drawing-room was held weekly by the President; " conver- 
sation, tea, ice, music, chewing tobacco, and excessive spit- 
ting, afford employment for the evening." 



41 

After looking at these Extracts, brought down to 
the spring of the present year, well might we ask our- 
selves, not simply whether these people are Christians, 
but whether one-hundredth part of them ever yet 
heard the name of Christ ? Were the land studded 
with as many places of religious worship, as there are 
trees upon its mighty surface, looking at thjs black 
catalogue of depravity and blood, wrung from unwill- 
ing testimony, we cannot but suppose, that whatever 
may be the professions of our brethren of the American 
Union, they are as yet strangers to the kind, humble, 
and gentle spirit of Christianity. In Philadelphia, it 
is true, we find one place of worship, or church as it 
is called there, crowded almost to suffocation. But 
Oh, what a crowd! Look to Extract No. 15, as 
given by Fearon. Hide your heads, ye Pagan and 
Bacchanalian orgies. Are these men met in the spirit 
of Jesus Christ, and of the beloved disciple St. John ? 
If this is Christianity, for the interests of mankind, 
and the honor of God, the sooner it perish the better. 
Our pity, Sir, you may with reason ask, but request 
not, we beseech you, our imitation. 

But are the freaks of these fanatics confined either 
to Philadelphia, or even to the Union ? No such 
thing. They are so much the pest of Upper Canada, 
that a petition from the inhabitants of Kingston was 
sent to the legislature, begging that they might be 
delivered from their visitations. These "American Or- 
thodox," as they call themselves, then considered them- 
selves as a persecuted sect, and collected the names of 
those who had signed the petition, in order that they 

G 



42 

might have no more deahngs with them. On this 
subject, the ' Patriot/ pubHshed at Kingston, Upper 
Canada, Feb. 8, 1831, is tolerably strong. "When 
our Saviour commanded his disciples to go and teach 
all nations, the gospel was not known in any nation. 
He never commanded, that after eighteen hundred 
years, the fanatical priests of one country should go 
into their neighbouring countries, where the gospel 
had been already preached, and was still taught, and 
preached in as much purity as it could be taught and 
preached by any in the world, for the time being. 
Much less did he authorise a set of rag-bag fund- 
holders^ and divers into under-Mtchens and cellars, and 
subterraneous oyster-shops^' (human nature being much 
the same there as here), "for pelf wndeY false pretences, 
to dub themselves his disciples, and go vagabonding 
with threats of fire and brimstone against all, though 
ten times more enlightened than themselves, who were 
not hypocrites enough to pretend to think like them, 
and give them money for the Lord's treasury ; and 
furthermore, to undermine by every invidious art the 
allegiance of the subjects of foreign princes and poten- 
tates. Heavenly Father, what blasphemy is practised 
by these canting hypocrites ! God knows, we care not 
to what country these pretenders go to preach, so they 
come not here ; whence to exclude them, is the sole 
prayer of the petition.^' Again, says he, "what do 
these impudent strollers preach but politics and brim- 
stone. '^ The Orthodox were proud ofbeing thought 
worthy of being petitioned against, and expected that 
the petition would ehcit an important discussion of 



43 

the question in the legislature ; to which the ' Patriot^ 
replies, " Is it to elicit whether it be prudent for a 
country to supply its own preachers ? And whether 
or not it be prudent to allow American preachers to 
come here and preach politics^ disseminate Anti- British 
Tracts, and carry off our money to support American 
books, and all manner of funds; to train soldiers first 
to vanquish the American people, and then us, and 
finally to bend every neck to the same yoke.^^ Such 
apprehensions may perhaps appear visionary to those 
not sufficiently acquainted with the meddling and 
ambitious spirit of these sectaries. But what says the 
'Telescope,' a paper printed in the States, dated Oct. 
8th, 1829, — " What are the facts, in the face and sight 
of which, we are told there is no danger. Have not 
the leaders of religious sectarians already and re- 
peatedly told us, they intend to have a religious party 
in politics? Have they not made their boast pub- 
licl}^, that within a few years they shall be able to 
bring half a million voters into the field, by means of 
their Sunday schools.'^ 

To curtail the influence of the Orthodox in Canada, 
the Attorney-General introduced a bill, by which it 
should be rendered illegal for any one to perform the 
marriage ceremony, unless a British subject. " This," 
says the editor of the ' Patriot,' " will cut off the 
Orthodox from the marriage fees, and the marriage 
suppers and entertainments, which were what they 
had their eyes upon." 

It appears that a person from the States signed the 
Kingston petition, and accompanied the signature 



44 

with these words : " 1 will sign against the Orthodox 
any where, for they are an infamous pack of hypocri- 
tical scoundrels, and a nuisance ; our country is eaten 
up with them/' 

A letter dated from Mississippi, and addressed to the 
editor of the ' Telescope,' has the following passage : 
" There are ten of us that have withdrawn from the 
Methodists, and have formed ourselves into a society 
of Reformers. We could not bear the tyranny the 
preacher wished to exercise over us ; his language is, 
' Give us your all, and you may follow us.' Indeed, 
he told us plainly, that, if we could not make up a 
certain sum this year, we should have no preaching next. 
He had also one hundred dollars more to beg from us for 
the use of some building they had on hand somewhere in 
the States.'* 

Another letter dated from Grafton County, to the 
same Editor, in which the writer approves of the dis- 
tribution of the Scriptures, but finds fault with the 
mode of doing it, proceeds to state — " The man who 
does not approach these wandering stars with wide- 
spread, w^ell-replenished pocket-books, must be con- 
sidered an enemy to God, and a niggard, if he is not 
branded with infidelity. I was led to these remarks 
from meeting one of these charitable men, who solicit- 
ed my aid in forming a Bible Society, in the part of 
the town in which I hved, " to furnish the poor with 
bibles. I declined, from the consideration, that how- 
ever laudable the plan originally might be, in its 
operation here it assumed a political as well as merce- 
nary appearance. I told the young man, I understood 



45 



some who went begging for the poor, received forty 
dollars a month from the American Board, and en- 
quired what he received. The answer was, one dollar 
a day free of ail expenses. Considering even the last 
mentioned sum enormous wages, to be paid out of the 
hard earned funds of our farmers, I so expressed it ; 
but still being pressed, I made a proposition to the 
young man, which was rejected. I proposed to give 
a month's labour for the distribution of bibles to the 
poor, if he would contribute one month's wages to 
purchase bibles. It appears clear to me, that could 
these men answer their own projects without naming 
the poor, we should not be troubled with their so- 
licitations.'* 

But we have not quite done with the Orthodox yet. 
To come nearer home, — Mr. Cattermole, in a letter, 
dated Colchester (England), Feb. 21st. when speaking 
of Canada, says, " in which part of the world, the only 
persons who give any trouble on account of opinion 
are the Methodists, who are all from the United States, 
and preach their politics on all occasions.^' Mr. Catter- 
mole, like Mr. Fearon, left England with a decided 
partiality for the United States, and he says in the 
same letter, " I assure you my hardest task is to con- 
vince persons, who formerly knew my sentiments, that 
I am sincere in my remarks;" his partiality being quite 
cured by a three months' residence. Again, he says, 
" most find, who are honest enough to avow it, and 
take pains to ascertain the fact, that the United States 
is, at this moment, far more under the influence of the 
clergy, and ridden by them, than they are in England." 



46 

The object of the Orthodox seems to be pretty 
clearly understood on the other side of the Atlantic, 
whatever it may be here. Enough of political ambi- 
tion, — enough of mischievous meddling, — enough of 
mercenary vagabondizing, — enough of outrageous fa- 
naticism ; in short, as our Canadian Friend says, — 
enough of" politics and brimstone." 

A very singular admission is made by Mr. Fearon 
in Extract, No. 1-5, that '■'■ whatever degree of religious 
intelligence exists is confined to the clergy, who, perhaps, 
have lost no advantage by the abolition of a state religion.*' 
So then, vi^ith all this influence, and all this superior 
information, according to your own admission, Mr. 
Fearon, the people themselves are utterlif and entirely 
destitute of religious intelligence. And where does this 
occur? In the wilderness? No; but in Philadel- 
phia, containing a population of 120,000 souls. But 
how are we to reconcile this " losing no advantage 
by the abolition of the state religion" with the admis- 
sion made, when speaking of Cambridge, in the 
States, Extract, No. 6. " I should be induced to 
consider the Trinitarians, to be much behind their En- 
glish Orthodox brethren, in theological knowledge, li- 
ber alitij, and sincerity ; and the Unitarians to be at the 
best too worldly-minded y Surely, Sir, if these Cam- 
bridge students will not bear a comparison with their 
Enghsh Orthodox brethren, in theological knowledge, 
liberality, or sincerity, can we expect an equality in 
Philadelphia, or amongst the backwoods-men ? It is 
true Mr. Fearon qualifies his assertion with perhaps — 
"who perhaps have lost no advantage by the abolition 



47 

of a State religion ;'' but what does this " perhaps " 
show, but a disposition to over-rate, where he had not 
sufficient knowledge to assert the direct fact. 

You ask with an air of triumph, after giving your 
statement of the number of Churches belonging to 
each sect, " now. Sir, what becomes of the charge of 
Unitarianism, brought against the American Church ? 
150 congregations only, out of 11,164/' If we look 
to Extract 9, vve shall find that " at Boston there are 
12 congregational churches, nine of which are said to 
be Anti-Trinitarian/' This tooin Boston alone, where 
the population was then 40,000, or only 1-3 12th part 
of the whole. Here then is a pretty strong leaven of 
Anti-Trinitarianism. 

If other places professed Unitarian principles in the 
same proportion, we should have upwards of 2800 Uni- 
tarian churches at least. But this is not all. "There 
being here no peculiar State religion, men are allowed 
the liberty of choosing to which of the sects existing 
here they shall belong. To the support of one of these ^ 
however^ they are compelled to contribute ; and should 
they neither attend to the worship, nor believe in the 
doctrines of any of them, the payment must equally 
be made, and then it goes to the funds of the congrega- 
tionalist body ;" that is of a body, in which nine con- 
gregations out of twelve deny the doctrine of the 
Trinity. Again let us look at Cambridge. The col- 
lege there contains 250 apartments for officers and 
students. And what is Mr. Fearon^s statement as to 
the religious opinions of the students, " the salt of the 
earth ? ^' " This college is regarded by the Orthodox 



48 

party (not the American Orthodox already mentioned) 
as heretical in religious subjects ; it being observed, 
as somewhat remarkable, that most of the theological 
students leave Cambridge disaffected towards the doc- 
trine of the Trinity." These men go from the college, 
many of them to become religious teachers, most of 
them "disaffected towards the doctrine of the Trinity;" 
and supposing them to possess the influence already 
admitted, what is the necessary inference ? That 
Unitarianism must be far and wide disseminated, 
amonost a people, represented as ^'■possessing no reli- 
<rious intelligence themselves^ as differing essentially Jrom 
the English sectaries^ in being ?nore solemnhj bigotted, 
more intolerant^ and more ignorant of the Scriptures.^* . 

There is. Sir, a remarkable fact connected with the 
opinions of our American brethren ; — that as they im- 
prove in general intelligence, the Episcopalian rehgion 
becomes more prevalent. At one time it was debated, 
whether or not it should be tolerated at all, being sup- 
posed to be hostile to Republican institutions. Yet, 
according to Mr. Fearon (for I love to take an arrow 
from the quiver of mine enemy), in New York, there 
were eight Episcopalian churches, a number greater 
than the churches of any other sect whatever; and 
" the Presbyterian and Episcopalian (Episcopalian and 
Presbyterian, if you please, for the former have eight 
churches, the latter only six), or Church of England 
sects take precedence in number and respectability J^ 

In the state of Ohio, Episcopacy has been esta- 
blished upon a firm footing. The bishop a few years 
ago came over to this country, and amongst his friends 



49 

in the Church of England raised a subscription of 
.^SDOO, with which he bought a large extent of fine 
territory, founded a college, and there instructs youth 
for the office of the ministry. Amongst his students 
are some native Indians of good family, who receive 
instruction in general literature, and the doctrines of 
the Christian religion, and thus form a connecting link 
between civilized and uncivilized man. The radicals 
of future times may perhaps think this property (the 
result of voluntary subscription) a fair object for spoli- 
ation. 

Thus whilst we have a party here, endeavouring 
by every means to pull down the established religion 
of our countrv, scatterinsf every where the crrossest 
lies, as to the nature and application of church pro- 
perty, and the vilest personal abuse against those con- 
nected with its ministry; whilst these men are hold- 
ing out the church revenues as a fit object of national 
rapacity, it is singular, that Episcopacy should in Ame- 
rica be triumphing over the most formidable obstacles, 
and in New York itself, at that time containing 120,000 
inhabitants, should take precedence in numbers and re- 
speciahility over everij other sect. Looking to this fact, 
one cannot but think, that better da^^s are dawning, 
and that the humane, liberal, and generous spirit of 
Old England may yet cross the Atlantic, and spring- 
up in a foreign land. When, in addition to this, 
we are told, that " English tory writers are neither 
unknown, nor unpopular, and that an American wri- 
ter, and indeed the entire American people,'' are of 
opinion, that, "the liberties of Great Britain are not 

H 



50 

about to expire under the pressure of her military, or 
the encroachments of her government ;" that " if they 
are to perish, they will perish under the daggers of her 
democracy," that " if she is to be blotted out of the list 
of independent and powerful nations, it will be by the 
parricidal hand of her own rabble, led on to their own, 
and their country's ruin, by anarchical reformers^ alike 
bankrupt in fortune^ reputation^ character^ and pritici- 
pky* When I say, we see such sentiments as these 
general, nay, according to our authority, universal in 
the American Union, surely they ought to have some 
effect in checking that desperate career of innovation, 
which is recklessly sporting with human subsistence, 
and ere long bids fair to sport with human life. 

If Unitarianism is to be opposed, the Episcopalians 
and Presbyterians are the only men that have any 
pretensions to encounter it. It is to be feared, how- 
ever, that the united efforts of all the other religious 
sects, if we can suppose any such thing as union 
among them, will not be sufficient to resist the tide 
of Unitarian doctrines. No man could exercise more 
pains in arriving at truth upon any subject of impor- 
tance, than Capt. Hall ; and the following Extract 
draws rather a gloomy picture : — 

" As our object on arriving at any place was always 
to see, as soon as possible, whatever was remarkable, 
we gladly availed ourselves of a friend's convoy to one 
of the Unitarian churches on the next day (Sunday 



* Since that time it must be allowed that Reform has fallen into more 
respectable hands. 



51 

th€ 7th of October), when a celebrated champion of 
these doctrines was to preach. 

" A considerable change, it appears, had taken place 
at Boston of late years in the religious tenets of the 
inhabitants, and Unitaria^iism, or^ as I find it called in 
their own publications^ Liberal Ckristianitij ^ had made 
great advances, chiefly under the guidance of this dis- 
tinguished person." Speaking of his sermon, the 
Captain says, " He next gave us an account of his 
share in the progress of the controversies, to which he 
alluded, and explained again and again to us, in a 
variety of different shapes, that his great end, in ad- 
vocating the Unitarian, or Liberal doctrines, was to 
set the human mind entirely free on religious subjects, 
without any reference, he earnestly assured us, to one 
sect more than to another ; but purely to the end that 
there might be, in the world at large, the fullest mea- 
sure of intellectual independence of which our nature 
is capable. He spoke a good deal of the Christian 
dispensation, to which, however, he ascribed no es- 
pecial illuminating powers ; but constantly implied, 
that every man was to judge for himself, as to the de- 
gree and value of the light shed by Revelation. Rea- 
son and conscience, according to his view of the 
matter, ought to be our sole guides through life, and 
the efficacy of our Saviour's atonement was not, as far 
as I could discover, even once alluded to, except for 
the purpose oj' setting it aside. He earnestly exhorted 
his hearers, not to rely entirely upon the Scriptures, 
nor upon him, their pastor, nor upon any other guides, 
human or divine, if I understood him correct) v ; but 



52 

solely upon the independent efforts of their own 
minds. Our Saviour, as ' the first of the Sons of 
God/ he held up as an example worthy of all imita- 
tion, but the indispensable necessity of his vicarious 
sacrifice was clearly denied. The Christian religion, 
he told us, as first preached by the Apostles, was well 
suited to those early times ; but, according to him, it 
soon became corrupted, and was never afterwards pu- 
rified, even at the Reformation. Much, therefore, still 
remained to be done, and one step in this great work, 
he led us to infer, was actually in progress before us, 
in the extension of Unitarianism." 

" As it is quite foreign to my purpose to enter into 
the details of this controversy, I have merely mention- 
ed as impartially as possible, what seem to be the 
leading points of a doctrine, which has obtained a com- 
plete ascendancij in one of the most enlightened parts of 
the count nj^ and is rapidhj spreading itself over the Uni- 
ted States^ in spite of the efforts of the Episcopal and 
Presbyterian Churches.'^ 

"1 have the less scruples in stating my opinions 
with respect to the probable effects of the diffusion of 
these doctrines, from finding the same expectation, as 
to the probable extension of Unitarianism, advanced 
with complacency in various American publications. 
In that country the popular cast of the religious insti- 
tutions and discipline is already very great, while the 
facilities of further change is so inviting, that these 
liberal doctrines, froF^ harmonizing so well with every 
thing else, are almost sure of ultimate success.*^ 

Such authorities, Sir, are not to be set aside by the 



53 

vague denial of people who have paid little or no at- 
tention to the subject ; and whose distorted vision can 
discover nothing good at home, nothing faulty abroad. 
We cannot escape from the conclusion, that Uni- 
tarianism is rapidly spreading over the American 
Union, and that such is the divided state of religious 
parties, that no effectual combination can possibly be 
formed against it. 

A peculiarity in the habits of the Americans, by no 
means favorable either to religion or morality, is to 
be found in their excessive use of ardent spirits. This 
is noticed by all travellers, and has been forcibly set 
before us, by Captain Hall, in all its demoralizing 
and desolating effects. The Captain attended a cattle 
show, at Stockbridge, where an agricultural discourse 
was delivered, in which we meet with the following 
statements : — 

'^The next thing that I mention," said the Orator, 
"as having a bearing upon the farming interest, and 
affecting its respectability, though of course unfavor- 
able, is the use of ardent spirits. Something, indeed, 
has been done of late to awaken public sentiment with 
regard to it, but there is no subject on which a deep- 
toned remonstrance is more needed. On this subject 
I must state facts, with regard to which, for the a^edit of 
this town^ for the credit of this comitij^ I would gladly be 
silent. The general correctness of my statement can- 
not be questioned. How much ardent spirits, do you 
suppose, gentlemen, is purchased annually at the dif- 
ferent stores in this town ? Do you suppose there are 
12 hogsheads? Do you suppose there are 20? Gen- 



54 

tlemen, there are 30, and this is rather below than 
above the truth. These, upon an average, contain 
120 gallons, making 3600 gallons consumed in this 
town in one year, or more than 2f gallons for every 
man, woman, and child. None of this is sold for less 
than 50 cents a gallon ; and if we put it at an average 
of 62|- cents, it will be very low. If we average it at 
that, the amount paid by this town for ardent spirits, 
is 2250 dollars." 

" If now, to the expense of all this, we add that of 
pauperism, produced by intemperance (and probably 
nine-tenths of it is thus produced), and that of the 
various lingering diseases, which not only an ex- 
cessive, but a moderate use of this stimulus induces, 
there is no calculating the expense or misery, which it 
occasions. But the expense, enormous as it is, and 
probably for this county not less than 100,000 dollars 
a year, we would not regard. Let our people be poor, 
comparatively, we care not for it, but let them retain 
their integrity and their virtue — let them keep them- 
selves clear from this abominable sin against .God and 



agamst man. 



}) 



" This appeal is sufficiently energetic, and, of course, 
would have roused my attention to the subject, had 1 
not already been much struck with the extent of the 
baneful practice alluded to. In all other countries, 
with which I have any acquaintance, the use of ardent 
spirits is confined almost exclusively to the vulgar, and 
though, undoubtedly, the evil it causes may be severe 
enough, it certainly is not upon the whole any where 
so conspicuous as in the United States.'* 



55 



In the course of the journey, such ample means 
of judgmg of these effects lay on every hand, that I 
speak of them with great confidence, when I say, that 
a deeper curse never afflicted any nation. The evil is 
. manifested in almost every walk of life, contaminates 
all It touches, and at last finds its consummation in the 
alms-house, the penitentiary, or the insane institution • 
^ so, that, while it threatens to sap the foundation of 
every thmg good in America-political and domestic, 
It may truly be said to be worse than the yellow fever 
or the negro slavery, because apparently more irreme- 
diable. Dram-drinking has been quaintly called the 
natural child, and the boon companion of democracy, 
and IS probably not less hurtful to health of body than 
that system of government appears to be to th^ intel- 
lectual powers of the mind." 

That I am not overstating the facts of this case, will 
be seen in the following Extracts from the First Re 
port of the " American Society for the Promotion of 
Temperance,- established at Boston on the 10th of 
January, 1826. 

" The evils arising from an improper use of intoxi- 
cating liquors, have become so extensive and desola- 
ting, as to call for the immediate, vigorous, and per- 
severing eflforts of every philanthropist, patriot, and 
Christian. The number of lives annually destroyed 
by this vice ,n our own country is thought to be more 
than thirty thousand, and the number of persons who 
are diseased, distressed, and impoverished by it, to be 
more than two hundred thousand ; many of them are not 
only useless, but a burden and a nuisance to society 



56 



" These liquors, it is calculated, cost the inhabitants 
of this country, annually, more than forty millions of 
dollars, and the pauperism occasioned by an improper 
use of them (taking the common-wealth of Massachu- 
sets as an example) costs them upwards of twelve 
millions of dollars/^ (P- 8.) 

The society is in hopes, that, by " some system of 
instruction and action, a change may be brought about 
in public sentiment and practice, in regard to the use 
of intoxicating liquors ; and thus an end be put to 
that wide-spreading intemperance which has already 
caused such desolation in everij part of our coimtt^y, 
and which threatens destruction to the best interests 
of this growing and mighty Republic." (p. 4.) 

The same Report contains many very curious Ex- 
tracts from official and other documents, all bearing 
more or less testimony to the enormity of this evil, 
but which are too long to extract. The following pa- 
ragraphs, however, are so remarkable in themselves, 
independently of their connexion with this subject, 
that I think it right to give them a place without 
abridgment. 

" The number of paupers received into the alms- 
house at Philadelphia — 

In 1823 was 4,908, expenses in dollars 144,557 

— 1824 5,251, 198,000 

_ 1825 4,394, 201,000 

— 1826 4,272, 129,383 



Total in 4 years ^18,825, expenses 672,940 



57 

" The alms-house at New York, and the peniten- 
tiary connected with it, has about 2000 inmates con- 
stantly, at the annual cost of about a hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Nearly all these people are addicted to 
intemperance. 

" From a Report made to the legislature of New 
Hampshire in 1821, by a committee, it appears, that 
the maintenance of the poor in that State, has cost 
them, from 1799 to 1820, 726,54.7 dollars ;— average 
annual expense, 36,327 dollars. In Massachusetts 
there are 7000 paupers, whose support costs the state 
360,000 dollars. From a report made to the legis- 
lature by the secretary of state, in the year 1822, it 
appears that there were then 6896 permanent, and 
22,111 temporary paupers, whose support cost that 
year 470,582 dollars. 

" By means of these data we estimate the number 
of paupers in the United States at two hundred thou- 
sand, whose support costs annually ten millions of 
dollars. We coincide in opinion with the managers 
of the society for the prevention of pauperism in the 
city of New York, who, in one of their reports say, 
'in the production of crime and pauperism, ardent 
spirits may justly be called the cause of causes.^ " 
[First annual report of the American Temperance So- 
ciety, printed at Andover, 1828, pages 64 and 65.] 

It would be well, I think, if those writers and ora- 
tors on both sides of the Atlantic, who are so prompt 
at every moment to visit with unmitigated censure 
the operation of the English poor-law system, would 
take the trouble to look at some of thqfpe things. The 

I 



58 

abuses of the poor laws are no doubt often grievous, 
and certainly I have no intention of becoming the 
champion of such departures from their original de- 
sign. That sort of argument, indeed, which derives 
its merit from recrimination, like the celebrated dis- 
pute touching the relative colour of the pot and kettle, 
may not always elicit important truths, but may some- 
times do good by making inconsiderate people think 
and inquire hefore they speak. 

The same curious report goes on to observe, that 
" others compute the drinking population at one mil- 
lion, and the number of intemperate persons at three 
hundred thousand, and the number of families afflicted, 
in various ways, by this terrible scourge, at four hun- 
dred thousand." 

" We believe the foregoing estimates are as nearly 
correct as the nature of the case will admit of; and 
after all the deductions are made, which any person 
whatever may demand, enough of want, disease, mad- 
ness, crime, and death, will remain to stain the custom 
of using ardent spirits with human blood, and lay to 
its charge the perdition of souls." 

On this it is unnecessary to make any comment. 
There is, Sir, another point intimately connected 
with the state of religion, and that is the observance 
of the sabbath : and here, Sir, I would direct your 
attention to the interesting exhibition at New Orleans, 
where some of the noblest animals in the creation are 
goaded to madness, and tear one another to pieces for 
the amusement of the spectators on the Sunday^ under 
the scmctiqn f f the Mayor. " If the latter (not the 



59 



Mayor, but a much finer animal — the bull), conquers 
his enemies, several pieces of Jire-worhs will he placed 
on his bacli^ which will produce a very entertaining amuse- 
ment.^^ And " if Mr. Renault is so happy as to amuse 
the spectators by that new spectacle (see extract), he 
will use every exertion to diversify and augment it, in 
order to prove to a generous public, whose patronage 
has hitherto been so kindly bestowed upon him, how 
anxious he is to please them.^' Perhaps, Sir, you 
may be able to tell us, what constitutes an average 
attendance on the Christian ministry in this sink of 
abomination ? 

If a respectable inhabitant of New York could say 
to Mr. Fearon, " There is not a father in this city but 
who is sorry that he has got a son," might we not 
"with as much justice regret that there should be either 
father or son here ? 

But the violation of the sabbath is openly defended 
by the public press, on the grounds of religious free- 
dom. "My previous numbers," says the Telescope, 
"must have convinced every unprejudiced mind of 
the diabolical spirit that has deluded the minds, and 
perverted the judgment of the petitioners for the 
Sunday restrictions." " Must vve be compelled," says 
this paper, " to keep the first day in the week ? We 
shall see, who in the hour of peril proves recreant to 
the cause of freedom. We shall see who raises the 
bloody signal with a trembling hand. To compel a 
man to cease from his labours on a day which he 
sincerely and conscientiously believes the Almighty has 
commanded hhn to work^ forces him to do that which he 



60 

believes to be a crime, and hence transforms an honest 
man into an infidel — a hypocrite."* 

But all other subjects sink into utter insignificance 
compared with the state of the coloured population in 
this land of mock liberty. It is not only that, at this 
moment, perhaps not less than two millions of human 
beings are held in bondage by men, who practically 
are task-masters, jury, judges, and executioners ; it is 
not only that, they are fenced in, tied up, and sold 
like beasts of burden at a market or fair; it is not 
only that, free blacks are taken under false pretences, 
and sold into bondage for life ; it is not only that, 
laws, dictated by a cold-blooded atrocity, unparalleled 
in any country on earth, stand as an eternal barrier 
against any amelioration of their condition : but hear 
Mr. Fearon on the subject of free men — " The three 
' African churches,' as they are called, are for all those 
native Americans who are black, or have any shade of 
colour darker than white. These persons, though 
many of them are possessed of the right of citizenship, 
are not admitted into the churches, which are visited 
by whites. There exists a penal law, deeply written 
in the minds of the whole population, which subjects 
their coloured fellow-citizens to unconditional con- 
tumely, and never-ceasing insult. No respectability, 
however unquestionable ; no property, however large ; 
no character, however unblemished, will gain a man, 



* The writer of this, who, no doubt has his followers, is evidently one 
of those obstinate wrong-headed fools, that would wear his nose on the back 
of his head, merely because other people wear theirs in front, were it not for 
the inconvenience he would sutler from his hat. 



61 

whose body is (in American estimation) cursed with 
even a twentieth portion of the blood of his African 
ancestry, admission into society!!'^ "I make no 
reflection upon these things," says Mr. Fearon, " but 
leave the fact for your consideration." 

Surely, Sir, if there be any of our religious exercises 
which more than any other tends to humanise the 
heart ; if there be any which draws closer the bonds 
of charity and brotherly love between man and man ; 
any thing, which in the place of pride and oppression 
would substitute humility and tenderness of heart, it 
is that high and low, rich and poor, bond and free 
should kneel at the same altar as children of the same 
Father, heirs of the same immortality. Yet here, 
even this privilege is denied ; not merely to the un- 
happy slave, but to the free man " cursed with even a 
twentieth portion of the blood of his African ances- 
try." Cut off from the compassion of man, and taught 
to look upon himself as an outcast in the eyes of 
God, the fountain of even the simplest elements of 
knowledge is closed against him. An Act passed in 
the State of Georgia, so late as December 22, 1829, 
section 11th, contains the following clause: 

" Be it furtlier enacted^ that if any slave^ negro, or 
free person of colour, or amj white person of colour, or 
any white person shall teach any other slave, negro, 
or free person of colour to read or write either written 
or printed characters, the said free person of colour, or 
slave, shall be punished by fine and whipping, or fine, or 
whipping, at the discretion of the court ; and if a white 
person so amending, he, she, or they shall be punished 



62 

w'tthjine not exceeding ^ve hundred dollars, and imprison- 
ment 171 the common gaol, at the discretion of the court 
before VDhom the offender is tiied.^* 

Does any country on earth afford a parallel to such 
an enactment as this ? Body and soul doomed to 
hopeless irremediable bondage. Yet, to swell the 
number of attendants on the Christian ministry, two 
millions of these poor creatures must be pressed into 
the ranks. Not but that many of them, in Christian 
virtues, may be far above their oppressors ; below 
some of them it would be impossible for any thing in 
human shape to descend. But step once more into 
that blood-stained log-house (Extract 23), and see the 
gallant colonel and the waiter tearing the flesh from 
that poor child. To call them savages would be gross 
flattery ; to call them monsters would be a com- 
pliment. " Yet," says Mr. Fearon, " there is in this 
instance of the treatment of a negro nothing that in this 
state is at all singular" and that such conduct is not 
only " tolerated " but " approved." Talk, Sir, of 
" the savage that yells on the banks of the Missouri,'^ 
where is the man that would not rather appear at the 
tribunal of God in the character of an unmixed, un- 
contaminated savage, with his quiver and his scalping 
knife, proudly resisting to the death, the treacherous 
invaders of his native domains, rather than in that 
of a Christian dripping with the tears and the blood 
of these mutilated and innocent victims? 

Need we ask what the religious character of this 
people must be ? Surely here is enough to pity, enough 
to disgust, enough of sickening beastliness, enough 



63 

of factious, cold-blooded calculating cruelty and dis- 
honesty, enough to avoid, but little I fear worthy of 
imitation, either nationally or individually. 

Many of these Extracts I must leave to speak for 
themselves, in the sure confidence that they will not 
speak in vain. 

And now, my fellow-countrymen, would you have 
supposed, that party spirit, in the face of these indis- 
putable and damning facts, could ever have so far per- 
verted men's judgment, and better feelings, as to in- 
duce them to hold up a people like this, as an exam- 
ple for you to follow, in their political, moral, or reli- 
gious character. It is indeed time, that your minds 
should be disabused of the impressions, which men, 
either ignorant of the real state of the case, or wilfully 
perverting it, are endeavouring to make upon you. " I 
leave it," says Captain Hall, " to the candour of any 
rational American to say, whether, in the whole range 
of paradox, there is to be found a greater absurdity, 
than the attempt to set up a population, so governed, 
as at all comparable to that of a country like Great 
Britain." 

The American constitution has lasted forty years. 
Men beyond the age of forty will live to see the ex- 
plosion of these heterogeneous elements. The late 
Mr. De Witt Clinton, in his annual communication to 
the legislature of New York, on the first of January, 
1828, made use of the following remarkable words: 

" But it cannot, nor ought it to be concealed, that 
our country has been more or less exposed to agita- 
tions, and commotions for the last seven years. Party 



64 

spirit has entered the recesses of retirement, violated 
the sanctity of female character, invaded the tran- 
quillity of private life, and visited with severe inflic- 
tions the peace of^f^mdiea ; i](eith:er elevation nor hu- 
mility has been spared;, nor the chapties of life, nor 
distinguished public services, nor the fire^-side, nor the 
altar has l>?en Jeft 'fr^e: ffPi^ ^ttaclj: ; hwtii licentious 
and destroying spirit .k$^ ^^n^ .fo^^i^k-i r^gcirdiess of every 
tiding but tjie gratificat}pn of ^.aligmnt J^^ and 

un-i£ortkij aspirations .'' uoiii i 

When we are told, as in the Tract to which allusion 
has already been made in the Advertisement^ that, 
ffin America, where |;here.;isnp: national church* re- 
ligion prevails more than in.'jEirjy other country in the 
world," it would be as well if its author* apd;the 
abettors of such a state of things, would define what 
they mean by religion ; because, judging from its effect 
upon the character and habits of the population of the 
United States, many people might be disposed to think, 
that the less of siich religion the better. 



THE END. 



*%■• 



Swinlxyne, Walter, and Taylor, 
Colchester. 




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